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tlapachoa.

Headword: 
tlapachoa.
Principal English Translation: 

to cover oneself; to cover something, such as eggs in a nest (to brood); or, to roof something over (see Karttunen, Molina, and Lockhart); or, to govern, to take care of people, watch over them, protect them

IPAspelling: 
tɬɑpɑtʃoɑː
Alonso de Molina: 

tlapachoa. nino. (pret. oninotlapacho.) cubrirse con algo, o caer sobre mi alguna pared o cueua, y tomarme debaxo.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 130v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

tlapachoa. nite. (pret. onitetlapacho.) cubrir a otro.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 130v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

tlapachoa. ni. (pret. onitlapacho.) presidir, regir y gouernar a otros, o estar la gallina sobre los hueuos.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 130v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

tlapachoa. nitla. (pret. onitlatlapacho.) cubrir algo, o techar casa.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 130v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

TLAPACHOĀ vrefl, vt to cover oneself; to cover something, to roof something over / cubrirse con algo (M), cubrir a otro (M) M also has TLAPACHOĀ as an intransitive verb ‘to govern, rule.’ M and T both gloss TLAPACHOĀ as ‘for a hen to brood,’ while M and Z have derived forms with the sense ‘a setting hen.’ See PACHOĀ.TLAPACHILHUIĀ applic. TLAPACHOĀ.TLAPACHŌLŌ nonact. TLAPACHOĀ.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 288.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

(1) nic. to cover, roof something. Class 3: ōnictlapachoh. pachoa with incorporated tla-.
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 237.

Attestations from sources in English: 

njman ic qujmontlapachoa, qujmonixqujmjloa, cecenme, ica neçaoalquachtli, tliltic omjcallo, ioan qujmonmaca icpaxiqujpilli, tliltic omjcallo, in vncan temj copalli = Then they veiled and covered their faces, each one of them, with black fasting capes designed with bones. And they gave them cotton incense bags, black and designed with bones, which they filled with incense (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
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), 63.

yz ca [...]a tlapachoa cuavhchichinalla = Here is [...] who governs at Quauhchichinollan. (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos, ed. and transl. S. L. Cline, (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1993), 132–133.

motlapacho = it was roofed

ytlapacholpan = a community governed by (another)

Yhuan nican motenehua yn Gouernadoresme yhuan yn visurreyesme in ye otlapachoque in ipan in nueua españa = And here are mentioned the governors and viceroys who have governed in New Spain (early seventeenth century, central New Spain)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 146–147.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

ynic motlapacho teocuitlayo = al cubrirse con metal precioso (ca. 1582, Mexico City)
Luis Reyes García, ¿Como te confundes? ¿Acaso no somos conquistados? Anales de Juan Bautista (Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Biblioteca Lorenzo Boturini Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Guadalupe, 2001), 174–175.

onictlapachilhuito ce huapatli nicmacac yhuan mochin quauhtectli ynic tlamito yhuan mochi yn tlaxamanili ynic huel motlapacho = le teché, le di la plancha y morillos y le cubrí la casa (Coyoacan, 1607)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 56–57.

yquac netlapacholloc in teylpiloyan in xitin calli huel quitlamito callacohuaya[n] catca huel ce[n]tlacol yn xitin calnepanolli catca ycpac teuhctlatoloya[n] uncan mochilhuaya' audi[enci]a = entonces se aplastó la gente en la cárcel, se derrumbó el edificio hasta lo que era la entrada, se derrumbó totalmente una parte de la casa de dos pisos, encima estaba el juzgado [teuhctlatoloyan] allí se hacía audiencia (ca. 1582, México)
Luis Reyes García, ¿Como te confundes? ¿Acaso no somos conquistados? Anales de Juan Bautista (Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Biblioteca Lorenzo Boturini Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Guadalupe, 2001), 144–145.

themes: 
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Behavior, Personality
Politics, Power, Governance