tlapaloa. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

tlapaloa.

Principal English Translation:

to greet; stand forth and do something; to dare to do (see Molina, Karttunen, and Lockhart); also, to moisten something

Orthographic Variants:

tlahpaloa

IPAspelling:

tɬɑhpɑloɑː

Alonso de Molina:

tlapaloa. nino. (pret. oninotlapalo.) atreuerse o osar.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 130v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

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

tlapaloa. ni. (pret. onitlapalo.) mojar el pan enel potaje, quando comen.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 130v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

TLAHPALOĀ vrefl, vt to be forward, daring; to greet someone / atreverse o osar (M), saludar a otro (M), This contrasts with TLAPALOĀ ‘to sop bread in sauce or gravy.’ See TLAHPAL-LI. TLAHPALHUIĀ applic. TLAHPALOĀ. TLAHPALŌLŌ nonact. TLAHPALOĀ.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 262.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

nic. Class 3: ōnictlahpaloh.
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.

tlapalhuia = applicative form of tlahpaloa
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:

Tlàpalōlōquê in caxtiltēcâ, yèhuāntin quintlàpalòquê in mēxicâ tētēuctin = The Spaniards were greeted, it's the Mexica lords who greeted them
Michel Launey, An Introduction to Classical Nahuatl, translated and adapted by Christopher MacKay (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 148.

motlapaloa = to dare to do -- e.g.:
auh in Mexica çā nimā aocmo motlapaloaia in ma onvian = But the Mexica no longer at all dared to go there. (Mexico City, sixteenth century)
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 124.

auh I çivapipilti ynic motlapaloa yn iquac nepanotl ŷpã calaqui = and noblewomen thus greet one another when they enter one’s house together (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 294.

Nimitztlahpaloz. "I greet you (with a handshake)." (Eastern Huastecan Nahuatl, modern)
Twitter idiezac post, June 2010.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

Yhuan tiquintlahpaloz in itlachihual in campa cate in ahnozo cana tiquinnamiquiz in pipiltin, in tlahtoque yhuan in tepan ihcanime = Y saludarás a sus hijos en donde estén o en cualquier lugar donde los encuentres: a los de linaje, a los gobernantes y a los que presiden a la gente
Huehuehtlahtolli. Testimonios de la antigua palabra, ed. Librado Silva Galeana y un estudio introductorio por Miguel León-Portilla (México: Secretaría de Educación Pública, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1991), 52–53.

Oquitac icihtzin, yohpacihtzin, iyexpacihtzin, yicnehuan ihuan itahtzin quitlahpalotiquizqueh. = Vio a su abuela, a su bisabuela, a su tatarabuela, a sus hermanos y a su padre que lo pasaron a saludar. (s. XX, Milpa Alta)
Los cuentos en náhuatl de Doña Luz Jiménez, recop. Fernando Horcasitas y Sarah O. de Ford (México: UNAM, 1979), 82–83.