to brag, to be arrogant; to enhance someone’s reputation, to flatter someone (see Karttunen)
Orthographic Variants:
chamāhua
IPAspelling:
tʃɑmɑːwɑ
Alonso de Molina:
chamaua. nite. (pret. onitechamauh.) lisonjear. Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 19r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.
Frances Karttunen:
CHAMĀHU(A) vrefl,vt to brag, to be arrogant; to enhance someone’s reputation, to flatter someone / se enorgullece, jacta (T), lo forma (T), lisonjear (M)M also has this as an intransitive verb with the gloss ‘for a child to grow or for maize or cacao to ripen.’ The common sense is of inflation, swelling up.
CHAMĀHUILIĀ applic. CHAMĀHU(A)
CHAMĀHUALŌ nonact. CHAMĀHU(A) Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 45.