tlamacehua.

Headword: 
tlamacehua.
Principal English Translation: 

to do penance (see Karttunen); to become deserving (see macehua)

Orthographic Variants: 
tlamahcēhua
IPAspelling: 
tɬɑmɑhseːwɑ
Frances Karttunen: 

TLAMAHCĒHU(A) to do penance / hacer penitencia (M) [(1)Bf.10v, (1)Cf.108v, (2)Zp.9,209, (1).Rp.144]. Transitive MAHCĒHU(A) means ‘to merit what one desires,’ but with the fused nonspecific object prefix TLA- it has the lexicalized sense ‘to do penance.’ Z has this with the entirely different sense ‘to eat the first meal of the day’ (perhaps in some ritual manner). See MAHCĒHU(A).
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 279.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

Auh in yehuatl Tecuciztecatl in ipan tlamacehuaya muchi tlazotli. = Y este Tecuciztécatl hacía penitencia con todas cosas preciosas. (CF/VII, p. 4)
Thelma Sullivan, Compendio de la gramática náhuatl, 4a. edición (México: UNAM, 1998), 141.

themes: 
Religion (Christian)
See also: 
macehua.