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cohua.

Headword: 
cohua.
Principal English Translation: 

to buy; to buy something; to hire; originally had a reciprocal sense to it (see attestations)
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), 215.

Orthographic Variants: 
coua
IPAspelling: 
koːwɑ
Alonso de Molina: 

coua. nitla. (pret. onitlacouh.) comprar algo.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 24v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

cetica niccoa. (pret. cetica onicouh.) comprar un real de pan o de otra cosa.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 18v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

CŌHU(A) vt to buy something / comprar algo (M) CŌHUILIĀ applic. CŌHU(A) CŌHUALŌ nonact. CŌHU(A) CŌHUĪLŌ altern. nonact. CŌHU(A)
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 40.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

Class 2: ōniccōuh.
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), 215.

Attestations from sources in English: 

ōtlacōhualōc, ōtlanamacōc = there was buying (cōhua) and selling (namaca)
Michel Launey, An Introduction to Classical Nahuatl, translated and adapted by Christopher MacKay (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 144.

most likely originally referred to reciprocity
James Lockhart, The Nahuas after the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), 153.

When discussing workers, the verb can mean to "hire," not necessarily "buy," as in a slave.
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), 118, note 2.

Nitlacohuati. = "I'm going shopping."
An idiezac posting on Twitter, June 2010.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

catelalatzin yc guicohuitiazgue = irán comprando candelas (Ecatepec, 1625)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 152–153.

onicohuili ynicmacac 7 pesos = se la compré, que le dí siete pesos
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 1, Testamentos en castellano del siglo XVI y en náhuatl y castellano de Ocotelulco de los siglos XVI y XVII, eds. Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, y Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: CIESAS, 1999), 272–273.

IDIEZ morfema: 
cōhua.
IDIEZ traduc. inglés: 
to buy s.t.
IDIEZ def. náhuatl: 
nic. Macehualli quitominpatla ce tlamantli tlen ya quipoloa. "Angelica quinahuatih iconeuh ma quicohuati chilli huan tomatl pan tianquiz. "
IDIEZ def. español: 
A. Una persona va a la plaza y le dan dinero a otro porque quiere que le traigan algo. “Angelica fue a comprar tomate en la plaza”. B. Comprar algo.
IDIEZ gramática: 
tlach2.
themes: 
Markets, Commerce, Economy