Ozoma (MH519v)

The glyph for monkey very typically shows the hair (tzontli) on the top of its head standing up, and sometimes the hair is long and thick, and so very noticeable. Perhaps this portrayal of hair is meant to serve as a phonetic complement for the "zom" in the middle of the root ozoma, given that "tzon-" stands for hair.

The ozomatli is a day sign in the religious divinatory, 260-day calendar, the tonalpohualli, so it was given as a name to babies born on its day. Because of colonial edicts to stop using the tonalpohualli as a source for names, one thing that happened is that the companion number was dropped, as is the case here, perhaps as a stopgap measure. number that usually accompanied a day name, which would reduce the sacred nature of the name. See Norma Angélica Castilla Palma, "Las huellas del oficio y lo sagrado en los nombres nahuas de familias y barrios de Cholula," Dimensión Antropológica v. 65 (sept.-dic. 2015), 186.

There was also a divine force or deity named Ozomatli, which, according to Desmond Morris (Monkey, 2013, 41), was "the companion spirit and servant of the god Xochipilli, the deity of music and dance. In paintings it is depicted dressed in malinalli herbs and with white, oval earrings with pointed ends." The wide-open eye of this particular version of ozomatli is also found in other manuscripts and may be, along with the hair, a diagnostic. The lines around the eye may intentionally add some tonalli, energizing force, as found in the name Totonametl (MH525r) and Atonal (MH624v), below. Perhaps the lines around the eye summon up the verb zoma, to frown in anger, also in a complementary phonetic role.