someone rebellious and obstinate (see Molina); someone stubborn and defiant (see Karttunen)
IPAspelling:
tsontetɬ
Alonso de Molina:
tzontetl. rebelde y pertinaz. Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 153v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.
Frances Karttunen:
TZONTE-TL pl: -MEH someone stubborn and defiant, a piece of something that sticks up / rebelde y pertinaz (M), pedazo (T), hormiga arriera (X) [(1)Tp.120, (6)Xp.38,98]. T and X have this compounded with CUAHU(I)-TL ‘tree’ to mean ‘stump.’ X also has this as the name of a type of ant. See TZON-TLI, TE-TL. Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 318.