Principal English Translation:
to try to make a living (nino); to serve someone (nic)
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), 239.
Alonso de Molina:
tlayecoltia. nino. buscar y grangear lo necessario ala vida.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 121r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.
tlayecoltia. nite. (pret. onitetlayecolti.) seruir a otros.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 121r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.
Frances Karttunen:
TLAYECOLTIĀ vrefl,vt to provide for oneself, to earn one’s living; to serve others / buscar o grangear lo necesario a la vida (M), servir a otros (M) [(2)Cf.91r,108v]. See YECOĀ. TLAYECOLTILIĀ applic. TLAYECOLTIĀ.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 304.
Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:
nic. to serve someone. Class 3: ōnictlayecoltih.
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), 239.
Attestations from sources in English:
cuix no ze mopal ninemi / cuix tinechtlaecoltia / cuix mopal notlatlaqua = do you give me what I need? do I eat thanks to you? (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 297.
ynic mochipa nimitznotlayecoltiliz ma ymochihua = so that I may serve you always. May it so be done (early seventeenth 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), 51.
Attestations from sources in Spanish:
xicmotlazotlayecoltili = sírvelo amorosamente para que te ayude
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), 50–51.
inic ticmotlayecoltiliz = para su servicio
Pedro de Arenas, Vocabulario Manual de las Lenguas Castellana, y Mexicana (Mexico: Henrico Martínez, 1611), 2.