otli.

Headword: 
otli.
Principal English Translation: 

road, channel (see Molina, Karttunen, and Lockhart)

Orthographic Variants: 
ohtli, octli, vtli, utli, vhtli, hotli
IPAspelling: 
ohtɬi
Alonso de Molina: 

otli. camino, generalmente.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 78r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

OH-TLI possessed form: -OHHUI road / camino generalmente (M)
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 177.

Horacio Carochi / English: 

òtli = road
Horacio Carochi, S.J., Grammar of the Mexican language with an explanation of its adverbs (1645), translated and edited with commentary by James Lockhart, UCLA Latin American Studies Volume 89 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2001), 508.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

road; channel for anything. possessed form -ohhui.
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), 228.

Attestations from sources in English: 

ca yehuatl yn intequiuh tlahtoque yn ohui ypan mochihua altepetl, yn huel yez quiyeecoa yn canpa ye huel quimaquixtizque macehuali ynic huel yez ymaltepeuh, yn ma yuhqui hotli camo ye in qui[to]tocti yn macehuali = For it is the task of rulers when dangers befall the altepetl to try to determine where indeed they may save the commoners, so that it may be well with the altepetl and so that the commoners do not, as it were, flee along the roads. (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, 192–193.

aocmo ceppa ipan quiçazque in herodes in çan oc ce vhtli quimotoquilizque ynic mohuicazque in inchan = they were not once again to go where Herod was; they were to follow quite another road in order to go to their home (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, 146–147.

ynin omoteneuhque mimicque ynic tlatzontequililoque Justiciatica mochinton xexelolozquia ynic ynnacayo miyxtlapanazquia vmpa onmopipilozquia mochi yn ipan yzqui huehuey ohtli ochpantli hualcallaqui Mexico = the said dead were all to be cut up and their bodies divided into pieces, which were going to be hung here and there on all the main roads and highways coming into Mexico. (central Mexico, 1612)
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), 224–225.

contecaco vtenco = stationing it at the side of the road
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), 234.

onpa Metepec octli Canpa MoCruSaroa = on the Metepec road, where the roads cross (Calimaya, Toluca Valley, 1738)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., i (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 217.

quioalmelauhtivetzque in meloac vtli = they went straight back the direct way (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), 100.

iohui = its road
i (possession) + o(otli) + hui (possessive suffix)
ohtlatoquitia = to go on its way on a road
(might also appear as otlatoquiltia)
Calotli appears to refer to an urban road populated with houses; i.e. a street.
Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood's notes from Nahuatl sessions with James Lockhart and subsequent research.

ioan in tepetl quitlecaviticac yn otli mitoaya teuchpatli imovi in tlaloque = And the roads that went up the mountains were called sacred roads; they were the roads of the Tlalocs (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 201.

otli tictotocatinemi = you go about following the road (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 217.
see also otenco, otlica, and otlatoca

nota iohui in nonan yohui = my father's road, my mother's road.
Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón, Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions That Today Live Among the Indians Native to This New Spain, 1629, eds. and transl. J. Richard Andrews and Ross Hassig (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984), 115.

quimocahuillito. ohtlipan. vmpa quimoquechillito. S.ta Ana. tlatilolco. oncan monahuatitzinoque. ynic niman nepa omohuicac tlahtohuani Don luis de velasco. tepeyacacpa = he left him along the way; he got him as far as Santa Ana in Tlatelolco; there they took their departure from each other, so that then the ruler don Luis de Velasco went beyond toward Tepeyacac (central Mexico, 1611)
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), 176–7.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

mochi tlanaquilitaque huehueytlaca pipiltzintzintin yc hualamelauhque y hueyotl xolal = a todo iban respondiendo los adultos y los niños. Se dirigieron al camino grande de los solares (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza, Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala, transcripción paleográfica, traducción, presentación y notas por Luis Reyes García y Andrea Martínez Baracs (Tlaxcala y México: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria y Difusión Cultural, y Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1995), 388–389.

calotli = la casa en el camino (Ecatepec, 1625)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 146–147.

acitica yn otentli quitocatoc metizintli = hasta la orilla del camino sembrado de magueyes (Toluca, 1621)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 136–137.

mocohuaz catelas matlactli pesustican yehuatl yn no hoome domines ypatiuh yn noca tlatlaz otlica yn icuac motocaz nonacayo = se compren diez pesos de candelas de cera de a dos tomines para que las lleven encendidas los que acompañen mi cuerpo (San Juan Teotihuacan, 1563)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 2, Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVI, eds., Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencias Tecnología, 1999), 134–135.

II tomines yc motlanehuiz cadelas II tomines ynic otlatocaz yn noçoquiyo notlallo tlatladiaz ynn iban otli = dos tomines sean para pedir prestadas las velas y dos tomines para que en el camino las lleven prendidas al entierro de mi lodo, mi barro. (Coyoacan, 1560)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 2, Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVI, eds., Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencias Tecnología, 1999), 122–123.

ytepanco ça no otli tlama nicnomaquilia ynoconpaletzin = a la linde también de un camino, se lo doy a mi compadre ynonamictzin ytoca Maria Castilanxochitl = mi mujer María Caxtilanxochitl
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 1, Testamentos en castellano del siglo XVI y en náhuatl y castellano de Ocotelulco de los siglos XVI y XVII, eds. Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, y Constantino Medina Lima (Santa Bárbara, Tamasolco, Ocotelulco, Tlaxcala), 310–311.

auh ynyn cecapal otli = [y] por otro lado señala un camino (Santa Agueda, sin fecha)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 1, Testamentos en castellano del siglo XVI y en náhuatl y castellano de Ocotelulco de los siglos XVI y XVII, eds. Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, y Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: CIESAS, 1999), 200–201.

yn depaco Francisco Quererro yc oca depatlis huei otli = a la linde de Francisco, y por otra el camino real (Santa Ana Acoltzinco, 1673)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 1, Testamentos en castellano del siglo XVI y en náhuatl y castellano de Ocotelulco de los siglos XVI y XVII, eds. Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, y Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: CIESAS, 1999), 194-195.

ypan notl = en el camino (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza, Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala, transcripción paleográfica, traducción, presentación y notas por Luis Reyes García y Andrea Martínez Baracs (Tlaxcala y México: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria y Difusión Cultural, y Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1995), 190–191.

yyoti = su camino (Santiago de Guatemala, n.d.)
Karen Dakin, "Algunos documentos nahuas del sur de Mesoamérica," Visiones del encuentro de dos mundos en América: lengua, cultura, traducción y transculturación , eds. Karen Dakin, Mercedes Montes de Oca, y Claudia Parodi (México: UNAM, 2009), 257.

otlica = en el camino o por el camino
Antonio del Rincón, Arte mexicana: Vocabulario breve, que solamente contiene todas las dicciones que en esta arte se traen por exemplos (1595), 11r.

idenco udi = itenco otli = a la orilla del camino (Guatemala, 1637, documento en pipil)
Miguel León-Portilla, "Un Texto en Nahua Pipil de Guatemala, Siglo XVII," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 13 (1978), 35–47, y ver 44–45.

themes: 
Transportation, Travel