Xoteotl (MH877v)

Xoteotl (MH877v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Xoteotl (perhaps “Flower-Divinity”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a flower (xochitl) with at least three petals and two anthers. Below the flower is a horizontal stone (tetl) with the usual curling ends and diagonal stripes across the middle. The stone is a phonetic indicator for teotl.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

It is uncertain if the flower plays a semantic or a phonetic role here. The meaning of the name might be something unrelated to flowers, such as something about a foot (xo). There is another example in this collection (as of March 2026) of xochitl serving as a phonetic syllable, xo-. It is also unclear why, when there was a range of possible signs for teotl, the tlacuilo would use tetl instead, unless perhaps there was some concern about the clergy balking at the non-Christian use of teotl. Actuallly, in many different glyphs, one will find tetl used for teotl.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

juo xoteotl

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Juan Xoteotl

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
syllable: te, teo, tel, or tetl (from tetl or tentli)
syllable: xo (from xochitl)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
fading tradition, or an effort to disguise?
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Flowers
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Religion (Indigenous)
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
striped
tripartite
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

flores, divinidades, fuerzas sagradas, nombres de hombres, men's names, fonetismo

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

xoch(itl), flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl
teo(tl), sacred or divine force, divinity, deity, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teotl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

posiblemente, Flor-Divinidad

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 877v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=827&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: 
See Also: 

Xochiteotl (MH486r)

Xochiteotl (MH829r)

Teoxoch (MH652v)

Xopanteotl (MH771r)