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tlacocoloa.

Headword: 
tlacocoloa.
Principal English Translation: 

to twist something

Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 104–105.

Attestations from sources in English: 

Nitlacocoloa. Niquixneloa in notlatol = I twist something. I muddle my words.
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 104–105.

Nitlacocoloa, titlacocoloa. Iquac mjtoa: in amo vel melaoac njqujtoa notlatol, in anoҫo itla ic njtlatlanjlo, in melaoac ic njtlananqujlizquja: auh ie ҫan njquixneloa in notlatol, ҫan campa nocontlatlamja: cequj njctlatia, auh cequj melaoac in njqujtoa: anoce ҫan aca itech nocontlamja = I go in circles, thou goest in circles It is said when I cannot speak the truth, or I am questioned about something which I should answer truthfully, but I only mix my words, I only end inconclusively. Some of it I hide, but some I tell truthfully; or else I only falsely accuse someone (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), 223.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

Nitlacocoloa, titlacocoloa. Iquac mjtoa: in amo vel melaoac njqujtoa notlatol, in anoҫo itla ic njtlatlanjlo, in melaoac ic njtlananqujlizquja: auh ie ҫan njquixneloa in notlatol, ҫan campa nocontlatlamja: cequj njctlatia, auh cequj melaoac in njqujtoa: anoce ҫan aca itech nocontlamja = Hablar por rodeos. Este refran se dize: quando alguno no queriendo dezir la verdad habla por rodeos para que no se entienda lo que qujere encubrir y satisfaga al que le pregũta sin dezir verdad (centro de México, s. XVI)
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), 223.