tlachichihualiztli.

Headword:

tlachichihualiztli.

Principal English Translation:

to use something to make something else
Indigenous Science and Technology: Nahuas and the World Around Them, ed. Kelly S. McDonough (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2024), 17.

Orthographic Variants:

tlachichiualiztli

Alonso de Molina:

tlachichiualiztli. aderezo. s. el acto de aderezar y atauiar algo.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 117r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Attestations from sources in English:

to use something to make something else
"As for technology, the term that best encapsulates the way I am think- ing about it is the action-noun tlachichihualiztli (tla [something] + chichihua [to adorn, dress, embellish] + liztli [the being or doing of something]), which roughly translates to 'something one uses to make something else.' Tlachichihualiztli emphasizes a process of ongoing creation and innovation. Contributors to these processes are referred to in the Nahuatl language with distinct descriptors based on areas of expertise and contexts."
Indigenous Science and Technology: Nahuas and the World Around Them, ed. Kelly S. McDonough (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2024), 17.