Yaotlacua (MH756r)
This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Yaotlacua (perhaps, “Enemy Eater”) is attested here as a man’s name. The lower part is a war shield, which is often used as a sign for yaotl (referring to enemy combatants). The upper part, connected by a short line, is the head of what may be a ferocious animal (tecuani) such as a jaguar. This seems to be a phonetic indicator for the likely homophone, tlacuani (eater) or a semantic indicator for its root verb, tlacua (to eat).
Stephanie Wood
The verb tlacua, to eat, can refer to the activity as practiced by humans and by animals.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
comer, enemigos, escudos, guerra, nombres de hombres
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/YaotlacuaMH756rCmpndPNM.png?itok=qcDHvaKf)
yao(tl), combatant, enemy, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yaotl
tlacua, to eat, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacua
tlacuani, an eater, a glutton, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacuani
tecuani, jaguar, wild animal, ferocious people-eater, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecuani
Come Enemigos
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 756r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=590&st=image
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).
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/Screen%20Shot%202024-07-19%20at%208.14.39%20AM.png)