Principal English Translation:
a what-is-it?; any old thing; whatever (an adverb); a common vocabulary word in predicting the future, in riddles and conundrums (see Molina and attestations)
Alonso de Molina:
zazantleino, zazantleino. que cosa y cosa. adverbio.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 13v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.
Attestations from sources in English:
Zazan tleino, icuitlaxcol quiuilana, tepetozcatl quitoca. Aca quittaz tozazaniltzin, tla ca nenca uitzmallotl. = What is it that drags its intestines as it ambles along the foothills of the mountain? Someone is sure to guess our riddle; it is a sewing needle.
Timothy G. Reagan, Non-Western Educational Traditions: Indigenous Approaches to Educational Thought and Practice (Mahwah, N.J. : L. Erlbaum Associates; 2000).
Attestations from sources in Spanish:
zazan tleino = adivinanzas
Zazan tleino: adivinanzas nahuas de ayer, hoy y siempre, comp. y coord. José Antonio Flores Farfán, on liustraciones por Cleofas Ramírez Celestino (México: CIESAS, Artes de México,2002).