tzintli (Mdz40r)

tzintli (Mdz40r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This glyphic element for rear end or buttocks (tzinttli) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Coatzinco. In that compound it was a phonogram, but here we are including it as a logogram. It is the lower half of a man's body (indicated by the white belt of the loincloth). He is sitting upright, in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. His skin is terracotta in color.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

As with all—or at least the vast majority—of examples of this glyph, the meaning "buttocks" has nothing to do with the meaning of the glyphs, although it may have a metaphorical value of "lower." When modifying a place name, as Frances Karttunen suggests, the meaning of "tzin" is new, little, or lower. It can also refer to something revered, for instance, when combined with something having the element "teo" (from teotl, divine force).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Keywords: 

butts, buttocks, rear end, little, lower, bottom, nalgas, trasero

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

tzin(tli), buttocks, rear end, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzintli
-tzin-, new, little, lower, or reverential, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzin

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

buttocks

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 40 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 90 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).

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