tzahua.

Headword:

tzahua.

Principal English Translation:

to spin (thread or yarn)
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), 240.

Orthographic Variants:

tzaua, çava, çahua

IPAspelling:

tsɑːwɑ

Alonso de Molina:

tzaua. ni. (pret. onitzauh.) hilar.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 151v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

TZĀHU(A) vt to spin / hilar (M) [(2)Tp.215,245, (5)Zp.67,120,123,216,225]. In M this is given as an intransitive verb, but T has it as both transitive and intransitive, and Z has it only as transitive. TZĀHUALŌ nonact. TZĀHU(A). TZĀHUALTIĀ caus. TZĀHU(A).
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 310.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

ni. Class 2: ōnitzāuh.
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), 240.

Attestations from sources in English:

See an image that represents tzahua in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).

cuix otitzauh otiquit otelemic ànoço ytla oc zentlamantli tequitl oticchiuh = Did you spin, weave, till the soil or do some other work
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), 99.

quiçava yn iquipal motlaqualtia = She spins [yarn for the loom], for which she is fed by him. (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), 210–211.

auh oncã in cuaxicaltepec mixpãtzinco nipepetlahualoz, nechcopinilizque in notlaquentzin, in oticmotzahuili in oticmiquitlili = And there on the hill of the skull I will be stripped in front of you. They will remove from me my clothes, which you spun, which you wove. (early sixteenth century, Central Mexico)
Louise M. Burkhart, Before Guadalupe: The Virgin Mary in Early Colonial Nahuatl Literature, Institute for Mesoamerican Studies Monograph 13 (Albany: University at Albany, 2001), 93.

Occenca intechpa mitoa in cioa, in ca neci uellamachioa, uel tzaoa, auh zan ye amo atle uel ai, zan teixcuepa: ic itechpa mitoa. Ixtimal. = This is especially said of women who appear to embroider and spin well but in reality can do nothing well; they just deceive people. For this reason they say: A glorious face.
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 118–119.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

cuix otitzauh otiquit otelemic ànoço ytla oc zentlamantli tequitl oticchiuh = hilando, texiendo, arando, o trabaxando de otra manera
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), 98–99.

in totzahuayan in toyeyeyan = donde hilamos en el sitio donde se va nuestra vida (de la poesía de Nezahualcóyotl)
La tinta negra y roja: Antología de poesía náhuatl, transl. Miguel León-Portilla (Barcelona: Círculo de Lectores, 2008), 180–181.

themes:

Textiles, Clothing

Women, Men, Gender

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