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nezahualiztli.

Headword: 
nezahualiztli.
Principal English Translation: 

a fast; or hunger (see Karttunen and Molina)

or, abstinence (a ceremony or ritual)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 75.

Orthographic Variants: 
neçaualiztli, neçahualiztli
IPAspelling: 
nesɑwɑlistɬi
Alonso de Molina: 

nezaualiztli. ayuno dela yglesia, o voluntario.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 064r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

NEZAHUALIZ-TLI fast, hunger / ayuno de la iglesia o voluntario (M) [(1)Zp.201,(2)Xp.57]. See ZAHU(A).
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 172.

Attestations from sources in English: 

i ma iuhqui tlamamalli in neҫaoaliztli, in juhqui opouhtivetzque, ie pacca, iocoxca oaliҫa oalpaccaiҫa = For no longer a burden upon their backs was their fasting. [It was] as if [now] they could move briskly and with security; now they awoke [from their sleep] with joy and peace; they awoke tranquil (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 3 -- The Origin of the Gods, Part IV, 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, 1978), 9.

nezahualoz in iquac motlanahuatilia in Sancta Yglesia = fast when the holy Church orders it
Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language, 1634, eds. Barry D. Sell and John Frederick Schwaller, with Lu Ann Homza (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 113.

neçaoalizquachtli = "'fasting mantle,' decorated with a bone design, was worn by a new ruler and his attendant lords during the four days of ritual penance that preceded his installation" (citing Sahagún VIII, 62–64).
Louise M. Burkhart, Holy Wednesday: A Nahua Drama from Early Colonial Mexico (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 199.

Jnic neçavaloya amo tlacatlaqualoya ça ye aiac mamoviaya aiac motemaia amono ac civa cochia çaniyo icoac in in pāquetzaliztlj tlacatlaqualoya chicomilhuitl. = When they practiced abstinence they did not fast, but no one washed with soap, no one took a steam bath, nor did anyone sleep with a woman. Only at the time of [the festival of] Panquetzaliztli did they fast for seven days.
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 75.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

nezahualoz in iquac motlanahuatilia in Sancta Yglesia = ayunar quando lo manda la Yglesia
Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language, 1634, eds. Barry D. Sell and John Frederick Schwaller, with Lu Ann Homza (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 112–113.

themes: 
Religion (Indigenous Christianty)