Cuatetl (MH905v)

Cuatetl (MH905v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cuatetl (perhaps “XXX”) is attested here as a woman’s name. The glyph shows the head of a man in profile, looking toward the viewer’s right. He seems to have a mustache. His head appears extra large under his bangs. Perhaps he is meant to portray what we might call a blockhead in English (cuatetl, or head of stone, perhaps). But a stone is not visible.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Two other examples of the name Cuatetl are held by women, the same as this one. But the others both involve a phonetic tetl. A stone head could be a carved sculpture. Or, one wonders whether the baby who originally received this name had a hard head. But Manuel Berra y Orozco (1880, 466) read the name as meaning “porfiado, tonto, tenaz” (stubborn, stupid, tenacious). A man named Santiago Chiquito Cuatetl was mentioned in Proceso magazine (Issues 765-778, p. 31) in 1991, so the name has lived on in contemporary Nahua society. For other names starting with “Cua-” see below.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

acatha quatetl

Gloss Normalization: 

Ágatha (or Ágata) Cuatetl

Gloss 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
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Gender (female)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
Keywords: 

cabezas, piedras, nombres de mujeres

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

cua(itl), a human head, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuaitl
te(tl), a stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

literalmente, Cabeza-Piedra

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 905v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=883&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).

Orthography: 
"c" for g
"q" for c
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Cuatetl (MH714r)

Cuatetl (MH633r)