tetzahuia.

Headword: 
tetzahuia.
Principal English Translation: 

to take something as an omen, something startling, a scandal; or, to frighten and scandalize others (see Molina and Karttunen)

Orthographic Variants: 
tetzauia
IPAspelling: 
teːtsɑːwiɑː
Alonso de Molina: 

tetzauia. nino. (pret. oninotetzaui.) tener alguna cosa por aguero, o espantarse mucho y escandalizarse.
tetzauia. nite. (pret. onitetetzaui.) escandalizar a otros.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 111r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

TĒTZĀHUIĀ vrefl.vt to be beset by foreboding; to frighten others, for something to augur ill for someone / tener alguna cosa por agüero, o espantarse mucho y escandalizarse (M), escandalizar a otros (M), es mal agüero para él (T) [(3)Tp.206]. This contrasts with TETZĀHU(I) 'to condense, thicken, congeal' See TĒTZĀHUI-TL.

TĒTZĀHUILIĀ applic. TĒTZĀHUIĀ.

TĒTZĀHUĪHUA nonact. TĒTZĀHUIĀ.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 236–237.

Attestations from sources in English: 

Auh huel zenca monequi, in acachtopa axcan, tamechizcalizque, tamechixtlapozque in itechcopa in cantlehuatl [sic] in za ie noma tlai[o]huayan mextecomac, annemi, in huel ic anquintetzahuia in oc zequintin, amohuampohuan cristianostin caxtilteca = Now first it is very necessary that we teach you, opening your eyes concerning what is the dark and obscure night in which you still live and with which you greatly frighten and scandalize the other Christians who are your neighbors, the Spaniards.
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), 61.

Çan no iehoatl ipan mochiuh, oc iuh chicuexiujtl aciqujui españoles mottaia netetzahujloa, in ioaltica oalmoquetzaia cenca tomaoac in tlanextli iuhqujn tlemjiaoatl = In the days of this same [ruler] it befell that, eight years before the Spaniards came to arrive, it was seen, and taken as an omen, that by night a very great brilliance arose, like a flame.
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 8 -- Kings and Lords, no. 14, Part IX, 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), 3.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

Auh huel zenca monequi, in acachtopa axcan, tamechizcalizque, tamechixtlapozque in itechcopa in cantlehuatl [sic] in za ie noma tlai[o]huayan mextecomac, annemi, in huel ic anquintetzahuia in oc zequintin, amohuampohuan cristianostin caxtilteca = Agora pues es muy necessario, y conuiene aduertiros de muchas cosas, con que todavia proseguis, y andais en vna muy obscura, y tenebrosa noche de ignorancias, de que los demas Christianos vuestros proximos los Españoles se admiran, marauillan, y espantan
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), 60–61.

themes: 
Nahuales, Sorcery, Divining