Yaotlachia (Verg42r)

This compound Nahuatl hieroglyph is a black-line drawing of the personal name Yaotlachia (perhaps “The Combatant Looks” or the “Enemy Watches”), attested here as a man’s name. The compound consists of two elements. The first element is a sign for warfare that is represented by a shield and, behind it, an obsidian-studded club called a macuahuitl. This is the logogram for warfare (yaoyotl). But, in case just yaotl is intended here, then yaotl could be translated as “combatant” or “enemy.” Above this sign is an open eye in a frontal view and drawn in a European manner. It is replete with eyelashes, a pupil, and an iris. It is very different from the starry eye of the Codex Mendoza, for example, and yet this manuscript is from the same era. This eye is a semantic indicator for the verb tlachia (to look), as expressed in the gloss.