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tlacatl.

Headword: 
tlacatl.
Principal English Translation: 

man, person, human being; or, a noble person, a lord (see Molina)

IPAspelling: 
tɬɑːkɑtɬ
Alonso de Molina: 

tlacatl. hombre, persona, o señor.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 115v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

TLĀCA-TL pl: TLĀCAH, possessed form: -TLĀCAUH person / hombre, persona, o señor (M) the plural of this contrasts with TLACAH ‘that is to say’ and TLAHCAH ‘at midday.’ TLĀCA-TL has contradictory uses. In older texts IN TLĀCA-TL is a respectful term of address, while the possessed form –TLĀCAUH conventionally means ‘slave’ and is used in place of the possessed form of TLĀCOH-TLI.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 253.

Horacio Carochi / English: 

tlācatl = person
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), 513.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

person, human being of either gender. also, especially before a noun referring to a high position, or in the vocative, honorific, like lord or lady, person of high degree. abs pl. tlācah, in some places tlātlācah. possessed form serves as the possessed form of tlācohtli, slave.
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), 235-236.

Attestations from sources in English: 

See an image that represents tlacatl in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).

Niman yc mochi tlacatl = Thereupon everyone
Fray Alonso de Molina, Nahua Confraternities in Early Colonial Mexico: The 1552 Nahuatl Ordinances of fray Alonso de Molina, OFM, ed. and trans., Barry D. Sell (Berkeley: Academy of American Franciscan History, 2002), 116–117.

hocate ypiluha ometi ze thlacatl ciuhatl ze thlacatl hoquichtl = She has two children, one a female, and one a male. (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos, ed. and transl. S. L. Cline, (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1993), 126–127.

yz ca[te?] yn imecava y to thomas yn [...]catyca chicuacemi y
çe tlacatl ytoca maria tlacu ynic umety ytoca marda xocu yniquety ayamo mocuatequia ytoca teycuh ynic navity camo mocuatequia teycuh ynic macuillty amo [c.q] ytoca necavall ynic chicuacemi [c s'] ytoca magdallena teya[...]pa = Here are the concubines of don Tomás [...] six of them. The first is named María Tlaco, the second is named Marta Xoco. The third, not yet baptized, is named Teicuh. The fourth, not baptized, is named Teicuh. The fifth, not baptized, is named Necahual. The sixth, baptized, is named Magdalena Teya[ca]pan. (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos, ed. and transl. S. L. Cline, (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1993), 110–111.

Tlācatle, tlàtoābie timitzontonepechtéquililia = O personage, o ruler, we bow down to you. (central Mexico, 1570–80)
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), 198.

nican tlaca = (we) people here
ciudad tlaca = people of the city; secondary officials
Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood's notes from Nahuatl sessions with James Lockhart and subsequent research.

tlaca (tlacah) = plural; tlatlaca = plural form found in Puebla (also found in Zapata, pp. 204, 642); tlatlacatzitzintin = also found in Puebla (a mock reverential?); huehuey tlaca = adults; San Cosme tlaca = the people of San Cosme
Here in This Year: Seventeenth-Century Nahuatl Annals of the Tlaxcala-Puebla Valley, ed. and transl. Camilla Townsend, with an essay by James Lockhart (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010), 58.

tlacatl + a title = lord, noble (señor) = an honorific, difficult to translate
Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood's notes from Nahuatl sessions with James Lockhart and subsequent research.

quitlatlapoaia in atl in ioaltica, in vncan catzupaia Españoles in tlaca = opening up the water [of the canals] were the Spaniards had filled them in by day
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), 224.

muchin pipiltzitzintin yhuan sequintin huehuey tlaca oquitzatzilique oquilhuique pan pan pa señor capitan ye tapismiquisque ye tapismiquisque = all the children together with some adults shouted to him, telling him "Bread, bread, bread, lord captain, we'll starve, we'll starve!" (Puebla, 1675–1699)
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), 206.

In Anderson and Dibble's translation of the Florentine Codex we also see tlacatl equated with noblewoman.
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 10 -- The People, No. 14, Part 11, 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, 1961), 45.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

ce tlacatl zouatzintli yntoca Ysabel = un hombre su señora se llama Isabel (Tlaxcala, 1562)
Catálogo de documentos escritos en Náhuatl, siglo XVI, vol. I (México, Gobierno del Estado de Tlaxcala, 2013), 11.

xx tacat quitequi castilan taoli çeçe semana yhuan/tacat quichiua serviçio ychan epañoles = Veinte hombres cortan trigo cada semana y uno sirve en las fincas de españoles. (Guatemala, ca. 1572)
Nuestro pesar, nuestra aflicción / tunetuliniliz, tucucuca; Memorias en lengua náhuatl enviadas a Felipe II por indígenas del Valle de Guatemala hacia 1572, introduction by Cristopher H. Lutz, paleography and translation by Karen Dakin (México: UNAM and Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica, 1996, 50–51.

ynocalecapohua ynocalnahuatlaca = mis circunvecinos y vecinos (San Salvador Tlalnepantla, 1618)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 98–99.

anoze quemanian quimohuascatizque yn tlacaiztalme ca otezmotla[o]cololi yn totlatocazin rei quename quitos ypan titulo yc omac pozezion = para que en ningún tiempo quieran ser dueños los españoles de lo que nos hizo merced nuestro católico rey, como consta en los títulos de la posesión que se tomó (Mimiahuapan, Tlaxcala, 1568)
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), 148–149.

Yn iquac miquico Quauhnahuac tlaca quipopoluzquia atlixcan yhuan huexotzinca = Entonces vinieron a morir las gentes de Quauhnahuac que querían destruir a los Atlixco y a los de Huexotzinco. (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), 116–117.

tlecuihuacantlaca = los de Tlequihuaccam (San Bartolomé Tenango, 1585)
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), 252–253.

ynic ocan intepanco aquiahuactlaca = a la linde de los de Aquiaguac (San Bartolomé Tenango, 1585)
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), 252–253.

ta:get = tlacatl = hombre
taga:met = hombres
Yaja guicoto:na e:lot pal se yec taga:t pal topocho:an.
(Sonsonate, El Salvador, Nahuat or Pipil, s. XX)
Tirso Canales, Nahuat (San Salvador: Universidad de El Salvador, Editorial Universitaria, 1996), 11–12.

themes: 
Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites
Women, Men, Gender