matlacpa.

Headword: 
matlacpa.
Principal English Translation: 

ten times (see Molina)

IPAspelling: 
mɑhtɬɑkpɑ
Alonso de Molina: 

matlacpa. diez vezes.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 53r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

MAHTLACPA ten times / diez veces (M) [(1)Tp.140]. See MAHTLAC-TLI, -PA.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 131.

Attestations from sources in English: 

Aiac matlacpa teca. Iquac mjtoa: intla aca itla itequjuh, itla ic tlapalevia mocujcujlia, monenenequj: qujtoa. Ma njccaoa ỹ notequjuh: in jquac iuh qujchioa in, in momati aҫo cenca ic tlaҫotlaloz, maviztililoz: auh ҫan ic tlaiolitlacoa: njman ic caoaltilo. Auh in oqujcauh: njman oc ce qujmjxiptlaiotia: auh oc ie cenca vel qujchioa in jtequjuh, oc cenca ie vel motlacujtlavia in qujn omjxquetz: ic mjtoa iquac. Aiac ica = No one concerneth himself for a person ten times It is said at this time: if someone has a task, something by which he gives help, he is supplicated, he is entreated. He says: "O that I may abandon my task." When he does this, he thinks that because of it he will be greatly esteemed, greatly honored. But he only gives offense thereby, whereupon he is released. But when he has been released, then still another is set in his place and performs his task even better; he who later offered himself did it with even better care. Hence it is then said: "No one concerneth himself in his behalf." (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, 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), 229.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

Aiac matlacpa teca. Iquac mjtoa: intla aca itla itequjuh, itla ic tlapalevia mocujcujlia, monenenequj: qujtoa. Ma njccaoa ỹ notequjuh: in jquac iuh qujchioa in, in momati aҫo cenca ic tlaҫotlaloz, maviztililoz: auh ҫan ic tlaiolitlacoa: njman ic caoaltilo. Auh in oqujcauh: njman oc ce qujmjxiptlaiotia: auh oc ie cenca vel qujchioa in jtequjuh, oc cenca ie vel motlacujtlavia in qujn omjxquetz: ic mjtoa iquac. Aiac ica = No ay que confiar en parientes o a muertos y a ydos no ay amjgos. Dizesse este refran: de los que estan en necessitad o los mesmos lo dizen de si mjsmos porque no ay nadie que entonce los fauorezca y ansi dizen aiac matlacpa teca. qujere dezir todos me an desamparado (centro de Mexico, s. XVI)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, 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), 229.

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