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pepetla.

Headword: 
pepetla.
Principal English Translation: 

to groom oneself, or to groom someone else; also, to stroke, pat, or pet someone or something (see Karttunen and Molina)

IPAspelling: 
pehpetɬɑ
Alonso de Molina: 

pepetla. nino. (pret. oninopepetlac.) peynarse o cosa semejante.
pepetla. nite. (pret. onitepepetlac.) peynar a otro, o halagarle trayendole la mano sobre la cabeza, y assentandole el cabello con ella.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 80v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

PEHPETLA vreft.vt to groom oneself; to groom someone or to stroke, pat, or pet something / peinarse (M), peinar a otro, o halagarle trayéndole la mano sobre la cabeza y asentándole el cabello con ella (M), lo acaricia (animal), lo alisa (Z) [(2)Zp.4,192]. See PETLĀN(I).
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 191.

Attestations from sources in English: 

Achtopa conjxtlapoa: njman qujpepepetla in piltzintli = First they uncovered the face, then they fondled the head, of the child (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, 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, 1961), 192.