Teotl
/ˈte.o.t͡ɬ/noun
In Nahuatl, a god, sacred power, or divine essence.
Did you know?In Nahuatl thought, teotl could describe a divine, animate potency rather than a single god, which is why it’s often translated as something closer to “sacred force” than a simple deity.
Etymological Timeline
Classical Nahuatl
Nah
teotl
“god; divine, sacred power”
16th Century
Nah
teotl
“god; deity; sacred essence in indigenous texts recorded after the Spanish conquest”
Modern English
English
teotl
“a Nahuatl word for god or sacred power, used in scholarly and historical contexts”
Proto-Uto-Aztecan
PUA
*tɨwɨ
“reconstructed ancestral form sometimes linked to divine or sacred concepts, though the exact pre-Nahuatl history is debated”
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