Cuitlahuatl (FCbk8f10r)

Cuitlahuatl (FCbk8f10r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex noun for the personal name Cuitlahuatl (or Cuitlahuatzin, in the reverential form) refers to a ruler of Huexotla (or Huejutla, today) who was in power for 13 years. The glyph shows a piece of excrement (cuitlatl) with a curl at the top. It is a brownish terracotta color. Sometimes this name is written Cuitlahuac, and in such cases the -huac suffix serves to turn the noun into something of an adjective. Julia Flood suggests that excrement has an association with the earth and is not necessarily a negative. Another person asserts that cuitlatl can also mean algae, which might thereby have a connection with something like the blue-green algae we call spirulina, which is good for human consumption. Cuitlahuac was also the name of a chinampa town and therefore had a strong link with agricultural fertility. [See Mexicolore, “What does (my) name Cuitlahuac mean?”]

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Examples of the noun cuitlatl and place names with this element appear below. The way this example has the curl at the top is unusual.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

Cuitlaoatzin

Gloss Normalization:

Cuitlahuatzin

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Politics, Power, Governance

Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

brown

orange/terracotta

Shapes and Perspectives:

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

volute(s)

Keywords:

gobernante, gobernantes, gobernador, gobernadores, tlatoani, tlahtoani, tlatoque, tlahtohqueh, teuctli, tecuhtli, nombres famosos, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuitla(tl), excrement, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuitlatl
-huac, a suffix that make as noun into an adjective (of sorts), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huac

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

(el nombre de un gobernador de Huexotla, o Huejutla)

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 8: Kings and Lords", fol. 10r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/10r/images/e66b9ad8-8d... Accessed 28 July 2025.

Image Source, Rights:

Images of the digitized Florentine Codex are made available under the following Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International). For print-publication quality photos, please contact the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ([email protected]). The Library of Congress has also published this manuscript, using the images of the World Digital Library copy. “The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.”

Orthography:

"o" for u, uh, or hu

Historical Contextualizing Image: