polactia.

Headword: 
polactia.
Principal English Translation: 

to submerge something in water, to sink or drown something (see Molina and Karttunen)

IPAspelling: 
polɑktiɑː
Alonso de Molina: 

polactia. nite. (pret. onitepolacti.) çabullir, o sumir a otro enel agua.
polactia. nitla. (pret. onitlapolacti.) anegar, o sumir algo enel agua.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 83r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

POLACTIĀ vt to submerge something in water / anegar o sumir algo en el agua (M) [(3)Tp.198]. M also has polacqui 'something submerged,’ which implies *POLAQU(I) 'to sink, to submerge.'

POLACTILIĀ applic. POLACTIĀ

POLACTĪLŌ nonact. POLACTIĀ.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 202.

Attestations from sources in English: 

iuh quitoa, ca miecpa, teatlanmictia, quipolactia in acalli. = And so they said: "Often it drowneth men and sinketh canoes." (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 7 -- The Sun, Moon, and Stars, and the Binding of the Venus, No. 14, Part VIII, 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), 14.tlamacazquj conitqui, quappiaztli, ielpan contilquetza yn malli, yn vncan ocatca yiollo, conezçotia, vel eztitlan conpolatia: njman no ic conjaujlia in tonatiuh, mitoa, ic catlitia = a priest, carried the [hollow] eagle cane and set it in the breast of the captive, there where the heart had been; he stained it with blood. Thereupon he offered [the blood] to the sun. It was said: “Thus he giveth [the sun] to drink.” (16th century, Mexico City)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2—The Ceremonies, No. 14, Part III, 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, 1951), 52.

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