Tzihuacmitl (MH661v)

Tzihuacmitl (MH661v)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tzihuacmitl (“Agave-Stalk Arrow”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph combines an agave stalk (tzihuactli) with a barbed arrow (mitl), separating the two somewhat, perhaps to clarify that this is a certain kind of arrow, made with the stalk of the agave known as the tzihuactli.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

See the image from the Florentine Codex, below, showing the agaves that are called tzihuactli. Sometimes the tzihuactli glyphs look like trunks where branches have been removed in a haphazard way, leaving short stumps. The appearance of a tree trunk may be employed to complement the glyph with a (“cua” phonetic syllable that is much like the “hua” syllable).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Hunting and Fishing

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Weapons, Shields, Armor

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

pointed (see also spiky)

vertical, upright

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

flechas, agaves, tallos, nombres de hombres

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Comparisons:

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Notes:

This contemporary painting of a “Diosa Agave” (Edgar J. C., 2025) captures the time when the plant sends up a flowering stalk. Perhaps this stalk, when its branches are cut off, comprises something like the tztihuactli, although the museum signage does not discuss this. Museo de Pintores Oaxaqueños. Photo by S. Wood, 29 January 2026.

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tzihuacmi(tl), arrow made from an agave stalk, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzihuacmitl
tzihuac(tli), small agave with a spiny flower stalk, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzihuactli
mi(tl), arrow, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Flecha del Tallo de Agave

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 661v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=403&st=image

Image Source, Rights:

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: