Principal English Translation:
calmly, tranquilly, slowly, little by little, carefully, with discretion, gently, humbly, sweetly, etc.
Frances Karttunen:
MATCĀ gradually, peacefully / apaciblemente, con dulzura (S), poco a poco (C) [(5)Cf. 109V, 110V, 120r]. M has this in the construction matcanemini ‘someone peaceable, tranquil.’ See TLAMATCĀ.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 137–138.
Horacio Carochi / English:
matcā = gently, slowly, peacefully, etc.
Horacio Carochi, S.J., Grammar of the Mexican language with an explanation of its adverbs (1645), translated and edited with commentary by James Lockhart, UCLA Latin American Studies Volume 89 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2001), 506.
Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:
matcā, pret. agentive as adverbial particle. peacefully, bit by bit. the same as ihuiān. verb of origin not certain; from mati? 224
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), 224.