ahuitzotl.

Headword: 
ahuitzotl.
Principal English Translation: 

a certain water animal, like a little dog (says Molina), but interpreted to be the marsupial water oppossum in an article by Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_opossum); Ahuitzotl was the name of the eighth ruler of Tenochtitlan, (or Ahuitzotzin, in the reverential); in contemporary times the ahuitzotl has been said to be a shape shifter who could transform himself into various animals, someone the people chased off, but he took with him all the local flora and fauna (see attestations)

Orthographic Variants: 
auitzotl
IPAspelling: 
ɑːwitsotɬ
Alonso de Molina: 

auitzotl. cierto animalejo de agua como perrillo.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 9v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Attestations from sources in English: 

Auh yn omotocateneuh Ahuitzotzin tlahtohuani tenochtitlan. yn conitlan yn quimocihuahuati tlatilolco cihuapilli ytoca tecapātzin ynin ychpochtzin yn epcohuatzin tlahtocapilli tlatilolco. auh yn ahuitzotzin yn inehuan tecapātzin yehuantin in oquichiuhque oncan otlacat çan icel yn quauhtimoctzin tlahtohuani tenochtitlan yhuan tlatilolco. ynin yehuatl yn quilpique españolesme. yn ihquac poliuh mexicayotl tenochcayotl. yn ipan ylhuitzin S. tipolito. martyr. yn ipan yc 13. agosto. de 1521 años. auh çatepan ompan momiquillito. yn huey mollan ompa quinpilloque yehuan yn Don Pº tetlepanquetzatzin tlahtohuani tlacopan yehuatl ompan quintlatzontequilli yn Don fernando cortes marques del valle Yztlacatlahtoltica. yquac mochintin in vmpa quinhuicac yn tlahtoque. ynin tlahtolli ytech tlaquixtilli yn bintula quimocahuilitiuh Don Alonso ximenez culhuacan chane = And the aforenamed Ahuitzotzin, ruler of Tenochtitlan, asked for and married a Tlatelolco noblewoman named Tecapantzin. She was a daughter of Epcoatzin, a great lord of Tlatelolco. And Ahuitzotzin and Tecapantzin begot and thence was born only one [son], Quauhtemoctzin, ruler of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. The Spaniards imprisoned him when the Mexica Tenochca state was destroyed on the feast day of St. Hippolytus Martyr, 13 August 1521. And later he died in Huey Mollan; there [the Spaniards] hanged both him and don Pedro Tetlepanquetzatzin, ruler of Tlacopan. Don Hernando Cortéz, Marquéz del Valle, sentenced them on the basis of a lying statement when he took all the rulers there. This account was taken from a painting that don Alonso Jimenéz, a resident of Culhuacan, left. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century) Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 78–79.

Auh yn oc ce omotocateneuh yn ipiltzin acamapichtli tlahtohuani tenochtitlan. yn itoca ytzcohuatzin. ynin çan no tlahtohuani tenochtitlan. ynin quichiuh ce ypiltzin ytoca Teçoçomoctli. ynin tlahtocapillo. quin icel yuhqui ytoca mochiuh ynin tocaytl yn nican tenochtitlan. auh ynin omotocateneuh teçoçomoctli. ayc otlahtocat. yn tenochtitlan çan tlaçopilli catca. auh yehuatl oquinchiuhtia yn eyntin tlahtoque. tenochtitlan. ynic ce ytoca tiçocic. ynic ome ytoca Ahuitzotl. yniquey ytoca Axayaca ynin ça xocoyotl. auh ye achto yn otlahtocat. auh çate yn otlahtocatque yn omotocateneuhque ytiachcahuan yn tiçocic yhuan Ahuitzotl. = And another aforenamed son of Acamapichtli, ruler of Tenochtitlan, was named Itzcoatzin. He also was ruler of Tenochtitlan. He begot a son named Teçoçomoctli. He was a great lord. His name later became a unique name here in Tenochtitlan, [for] this aforenamed Teçoçomoctli was never ruler of Tenochtitlan; he was only a highborn nobleman; but he begot three rulers of Tenochtitlan. The first was named Tiçocic. The second was named Ahuitzotl. The third was named Axayaca; he was the youngest, but he was the first to be ruler, and afterward his aforenamed elder brothers Tiçocic and Ahuitzotl were rulers. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century) Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 78–79.

Aujtzotl, ic chicuej tlatocat in tenochtitlan: caxtolxiujtl ipan exiuitl. Icoac tlatocati in apachiuh Mexico: itencopa mochiuh, inic motlapo macujltetl oztotl in jntoca Acuecuexatl, tlillatl, Vitzillatl xochcaatl, coahatl, inma in coioacã ioan ujtzilupuchco = Auitzotl was the eighth, and he ruled Tenochtitlan for eighteen years. When he was ruler, Mexico was flooded. By his command it was done; five springs were opened, known as Acuecuexatl, Tlillatl, Uitzillatl, Xochcaatl, and Coaatl, which were in the territory of Coyoacan and Uitzilopochco. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 8 -- Kings and Lords, no. 14, Part IX, 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, 1951), 2.

momiquillico yn tlacatl Ahuitzotzin tlahtohuani tenuchtitlan yn tlahtocat. 17. xihuitl = the lord Ahuitzotzin, ruler of Tenochtitlan, died. He had ruled for seventeen years. And just then at that time, his nephew, named Moteucçoma Xocoyotl, was installed as ruler there. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 36–37.

in quetzalteculotl: itlaviz catca in Auitzotzin = in a quetzal-owl costume. That had been the device of Ahuitzotl. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 238.

¶ vij. tochtli xihuitl, 1486. ypan in motlahtocatlalli yn tlacatl yn auhuitzotzin tlahtohuani tenochtitlan = The year Seven Rabbit, 1486. At this time the lord Ahuitzotzin was installed as ruler of Tenochtitlan. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 1, 214, 215.

¶ x. tochtli xihuitl 1502. años ypan in momiquillico yn ahuitzotzin tlahtocat tenuchtitlan, caxtollomome xihuitl, auh ca niman ihcuac ȳ motlahtocatalli yn quin iz momiquilia moteuhcçomatzin xocoyotl = The year Ten Rabbit, 1502. At this time Ahuitzotzin died. He had ruled Tenochtitlan for seventeen years. And then was when Moteucçomatzin Xocoyoyl, who later died here, was installed as ruler. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 1, 214–216.

ynic caxtollomey. ytoca Ahuitzotl tlahtohuani = the 18th was named Ahuitzotl, ruler (central Mexico, 1608–1609?)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 146–7.

auh in icoac oquicac in tlatoani Auitzotzin: in ompan oalmotzacu, in naoaloztomeca, niman otlaioa; iehoatl oioaloc in motecuçomatzin, tlacochcalcattitia aiamo tlatocatlalilo in icoac = And when the ruler Auitzotxzin heard that the disguised merchants were besieged there, then aid was sent. The one who was sent was Moctezuma, who went serving as a general. He had not at the time been installed as ruler. (16th century, Mexico City)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 9—The Merchants, trans. Charles E. Dubble and Arthur J.O. Anderson (Santa Fe, New Mexico; The School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1959), 6.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

El mito de Ahuizotl. "En tiempos remotos Xaltocan era gobernado por un rey-nahual que asustaba a la gente por transformarse en distintos animales. Sus súbditos lo hicieron huir y se llevó toda la flora y fauna y hoy día Xaltocan ha perdido su riqueza natural." (Escuchado en Xaltocan, Méx., s. XX. Según Barrios, 1950, 72–82.)
Fernando Horcasitas, "La narrativa oral náhuatl (1920–1975)," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 13 (1978), 177–209.

Ahuitzotzin: El legendario ahuitzotl, o ahuizote, de fantásticos caracteres. Según Hernández "es de colores negro y negruzco, de tamaño de perro de Malta, que puede considerarse una especie de nutria"; este animal "se encuentra en los ríos de aguas dulces que corren por regiones cálidas". En el Florentino el símbolo del agua está bajo el animal.
Víctor M. Castillo F., "Relación Tepepulca de los señores de México Tenochtitlan y de Acolhuacan," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 11 (1974), 183–225, y ver la pág. 190—191.

AHUITZOTZIN ixiuhtzon ixiuhyacamiuh ixiuhtilma techilnahuayo itepotzoicpal = AHUITZOTZIN, su diadema de turquesas, su nariguera de turquesa como flecha, su manta color turquesa, festón rojo en la orilla, su asiento con espaldar (centro de México, s. XVI)
Víctor M. Castillo F., "Relación Tepepulca de los señores de México Tenochtitlan y de Acolhuacan," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 11 (1974), 183–225, y ver la pág. 198—199.