Principal English Translation:
to scrape, make stripes or striations in something, treat hides
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 217.
Alonso de Molina:
uauana. nitla. (pret. onitlauauan.) escaruar, o hazer rayas enla tierra, reglar papel, trazar o debuxar algo.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 155r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.
Frances Karttunen:
HUAHUAN(A) vt to scratch, scrape something, to incise lines on something / escarbar o hacer rayas en la tierra, reglar papel, trazar o dibujar algo (M), lo raspa (T) Z has a long vowel in the second syllable and in one attestation has the reflex of a glottal stop at the end of the first syllable. X consistently has a long vowel in the second syllable, while T consistently has a short one. HUAHUANILIĀ applic. HUAHUAN(A) HUAHUANALŌ nonact. HUAHUAN(A)
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 80.
Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:
nic. Class 2: ōnichuahuan. the second a may be long.
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 217.
Attestations from sources in Spanish:
Olman oncan quipolloque yn chaneque catca yn olmeca oncan quincacalque quiuauanque yehuantin yn tlalpolloque yn icxicouatl yn quetzalteueyac yn tezcauitzil yn tololouitzin = Olman. Allí destruyeron a los habitantes, a los olmeca. Allí los sacrificaron por flechamiento, los "rayaron", ellos Icxicouatl, Quetzalteueyac, Tezcauitzil y Tololuitzin, conquistaron la tierra. (Quauhtinchan, s. XVI)
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, eds. Paul Kirchhoff, Lina Odena Güemes, y Luis Reyes García (México: CISINAH, INAH-SEP, 1976), 145.