cencahua. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

cencahua.

Principal English Translation:

to prepare, get ready (see Karttunen and Lockhart); to ornament something; or, to relinquish entirely (see attestations)

IPAspelling:

senkɑːwɑ

Alonso de Molina:

Cencaua nino. aparejarse, apercebirse, disponerse, atauiarse, o adereçarse. pre. oninocencauh. Cencaua. nitla. aparejar algo assi.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, f. 17r.

Frances Karttunen:

CENCĀHU(A) vrefl, vt to prepare, get ready; to ready something, to prepare something / aparejarse, apercibirse, disponer, ataviarse, o aderezarse (M), aparejar algo asi (M) See CEM, CĀHU(A). CENCĀHUALŌ nonact. CENCĀHU(A)
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 30.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

cencāhua, nic. to prepare, make ready, get fixed up. Class 2: ōniccencāuh. cē/cem, cāhua.
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 213.

Attestations from sources in English:

inic quimmotzatzilili, inic mocencahuazque = so that he proclaimed to them, to be prepared
Fray Juan Bautista, Sermonario, 1606, f. 583v.; translation by Mark Z. Christensen, "Nahua and Maya Catholicisms: Ecclesiastical Texts and Local Religion in Colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan," Ph.D. Dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 2010, Appendix D, 10.

Aun yn otlacencaoaloc = And when they [the flowers] had been arranged (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2 -- The Ceremonies, no. 14, Part III, 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, 1951), 101.

omozencauh (omocencauh) ynin altepeam[atl] = this altepetl document was prepared (Mexico, late seventeenth-century) (Techialoyan manuscript from San Cristóbal Texcalucan and Magdalena Chichicaspa)
James Lockhart, personal communication, May 23, 2008.

ixquichtin maceuhque huel mocencauhque = All the dancers prepared themselves well (early seventeenth century, central New Spain)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 42–43.

auh yn isquich y¯ nochantlatqui . onicpiaya y¯ puertas . cerraduras . mochi niccēcahua = And I relinquish entirely all the household appurtenances I had, the doors and locks and everything (Coyoacan, 1575)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 20, 112–113.

yn oqujcencauhque, cacoqujxtia in telpuchtequjoaque, yoan in teachcaoan, in telpopuchti = When they had ornamented [the figure of Uitzilopochtli], the young, seasoned warriors, the masters of the youths, and the youths took it up. sixteenth century, Mexico City)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2—The Ceremonies, No. 14, Part III, 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, 1951), 70.