(a loanword from Spanish)
permanent employee, especially in a rural context (Lockhart); often indigenous community members who had gone to live on nearby estates (SW)
ynn alcates oquitlali çequicayanis (Huejotla, 1634)
Cequicayanis most likely represents not cequi cayanis "one who is a hired man" but, as the Spanish translator also seems to have thought, cequi icayanis "one who is his hired man."
"Cayanis," and “cayanixti” are found in Nahuatl records from Tepemaxalco/Calimaya, Toluca Valley in 1658 and 1674), referring to gañanes. (Lockhart)
Note that all of our attestations so far come from the seventeenth century, when haciendas were on the upswing and hired laborers were taking the place of encomienda laborers. (SW)