to hold the office of governance, a metaphor (see Molina)
Orthographic Variants:
petlapan ycpalpan nica
Alonso de Molina:
petlapan ycpalpan nica. tener officio de regir y gouernar. metaphora. Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 81r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.