tzotzona.

Headword: 
tzotzona.
Principal English Translation: 

to doubt something, or hurt oneself on a wall or door sill; or to punch/hit someone; to pound something; or to beat drums, or play an organ; to give out blows; or, to pan for gold

Orthographic Variants: 
tzohtzona
IPAspelling: 
tsotsonɑ
Alonso de Molina: 

tzotzona. nino. (pret. oninotzotzon.) dudar algo, o darse algun golpe en la pared, o enel vmbral dela puerta.
tzotzona. nite. (pret. onitetzotzon.) apuñear, o dar golpe a otro.
tzotzona. nitla. (pret. onitlatzotzon.) tañer atabales, o organos, dar golpes, o batir oro
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 154r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

quech tzotzona. nite. (pret. onitequetzotzon.) dar pescozada a otro
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 88v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

TZOTZON(A) vt to strike someone, to beat something, to play an instrument / golpear algo, o tañer instrumento (C), tañer atabales, o órganos, dar golpes o batir oro (M), apuñear o dar golpe a otro (M), lo toca (un instrumento de música) (T) C contrasts TZOTZON(A) with TZOHTZON(A) ‘to beat something, someone with repeated blows. TZOTZONILIĀ applic. TZOTZON(A). TZOTZONALŌ nonact. TZOTZON(A).
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 319.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

tzotzona = to pound; to beat a drum or play other more or less percussive musical instruments; nic. Class 2: ōnictzotzon.
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), 241.

Attestations from sources in English: 

Qujcujcatiaia, yn iveveiooan, qujteponacilhujaia, caiotzotzonjlia, caioujtequjlia, caiacachilhuja, comjchicaoacilhuja. = Her old men sang for her; they beat the two-toned wooden drum, and the turtle-shell drum; they rattled rattles shaped like dried poppy-seed pods, and they rattled bone rattles. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 1 -- The Gods; No. 14, Part 2, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1950), 5.

tzotzona (verb) = to strike the drum
Daniel Garrison Brinton, Ancient Nahuatl Poetry: Containing the Nahuatl Text of XXVII Ancient Mexican Poems (1877), 167.

auh no yquac cuicuicaya. tlatlatzonaya. yn omotocateneuh huehue çaca yn ichan auh ynacaztitlan acic quicac yn moteuhcçomatzin ylhuicamina. quihto. tetlatlani. aquin cuica. auh nimā quilhuique ca yehuatl yn motechiuhcauh huehue çaca. = But also at that time the aforenamed Huehue Çaca continuously sang and beat drums in his home, and [the sound] reached Moteucçomatzin Ilhuicamina's ears; he heard it. He asked people: Who sings? And they said to him: It is your senior official, Huehue Çaca. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 94–95.

motzohtzonaz, in omeyollohuaz = he will doubt about himself Susanne Klaus, Uprooted Christianity: The Preaching of the Christian Doctrine in Mexico, Based on Franciscan Sermons of the 16th Century Written in Nahuatl (Bonn: Bonner Amerikanistische Studien e. V. c/o Seminar für Völkerkunde, Universität Bonn, 1999), 249.

In references to the cueitl (skirt) and huipilli (blouse), this verb can be metaphorical for committing adultery.
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), 81, note 64.

niman ye yc quauhtzotzona yn oztotenpa ynic oncan quinelhuayotique yn yehuatl altepetl. yn ical yn iteocal yn huitzilopochtli = Thereupon they hammered in wood [piles] at the cave's mouth. Thus they made a foundation for the city and Huitzilopochtli's house, his temple. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 1, 108–109.

tlatzotzontivitze, yoan tlapitztivitze yoan quavilacapitzli = They came beating drums and blowing [trumpets] and wooden fifes. (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), 186.

ie ic quivicatiuitze, quitzotzona inic quinextilia in intelaçotlaliz = they came along with him, stroking his hair to show their good feeling (central Mexico, 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), 118.

yuã tepuztica tetezotzõaloc ynacayotzĩ = and his body was struck repeatedly with metal (mid 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), 126.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

yn ohuala se jues [Espacio en blanco] quipuhuaco çetetl real probiçio mochiuh prigo tiaquizco sabado motzotzo gaja yhua mopiz clari = vino a leer una real provisión. Se hizo pregón en el mercado del sábado, se tocó la caja y el clarín. (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza, Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala, transcripción paleográfica, traducción, presentación y notas por Luis Reyes García y Andrea Martínez Baracs (Tlaxcala and México: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria y Difusión Cultural, y Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1995), 476–477.

Yhuan ma cana tecue, tehuipil yc timotzotzon, yc timohuitec = En ninguna parte con la falda, con la camisa ajena te des un golpe, te dañes
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), 79, 81.

za teca motzotzona, mohuitequi, in za tenanaltzatihuetzi, in za tequaquatihuetzi = sólo con la gente se golpea, se pega, sólo gruñe a las personas de repente, sólo las muerde repentinamente
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), 56–57.