xo (MH569v)

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of a foot is an element that has been carved from the compound glyph Xocuicuitla. It represents syllable xo- (relating to feet). The compound shows this foot stepping in multiple (seven) pieces of excrement (cuitlatl, given in reduplication and dropping the absolutive ending, resulting in cuicuitla).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This example of "xo," which comes from the Matrícula de Huexotzinco (of 1560) is different from examples of "xo" from the Codex Mendoza (c. 1541), which are either portions of a leg that includes the foot or just footprints. See below. European influence has apparently brought the changes of shading (three-dimensionality) on the bottom of the foot, and a pant cuff above the foot. Most Nahua men were not wearing trousers with cuffs in 1541, but some of them were by 1560.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Syntax: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
Other Cultural Influences: 
Keywords: 

foot, feet, pies, huellas

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

xo-, element with the sense of "foot" in many compounds, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xo

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

(relacionado con el pie)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 569v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=218&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).