people attached to a tlahtoani; possibly "palace people" (if tecpantlaca is meant) or "palace inhabitant" (see Siméon, p. 442); or, possibly supervisor, given that tepan is given in Molina as "sobre alguno, o sobre algunos" (Coyoacan, mid-sixteenth century) Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 26, see note 6 on page 154.
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 10 -- The People, No. 14, Part 11, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 32.