tlacualli.

Headword: 
tlacualli.
Principal English Translation: 

food, prepared food, a meal (see Molina, Karttunen, and attestations)

Orthographic Variants: 
tlaqualli, tlacualtzintli
IPAspelling: 
tɬɑkwɑlli
Alonso de Molina: 

tlaqualli. comida, o vianda.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 133r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

TLACUAL-LI food / comida o vianda (M). Although the verb CUĀ ‘to eat something’ has a long vowel, the corresponding vowel of this derived form is short in B, C, and T. In X and Z it is consistently marked long. See CUĀ.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 257.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

patientive noun from quā.
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), 238.

Attestations from sources in English: 

ma yhuian quihualmonamiquilizque. tlaqualtzintli. totoltzin. tototetl. tlaoltzintli. zacatzintli. atzintli. = Let [the Spaniards] peacefully receive food: turkey hens, eggs, shelled corn, grass, water. (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, 186–187.

Cuix in, yquac aca omomiquili in àço mohuayolqui in áço, oc çe tlacatl, cuix Ayatl, piçietl, mecapilli, tomin, atl, tlaqualli, oanquihuicaltique, in ipan oanquitocaque, oanquiquimiloque in amo oquima in teopixqui? = When someone died- perhaps your relative or maybe some other person- did you accompany, bury and wrap each one of them up with henequen cloaks, tobacco, tumplines, sandals, money, water, food, [and all] unbeknownst to the priest?
Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language, 1634, eds. Barry D. Sell and John Frederick Schwaller, with Lu Ann Homza (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 83.

Iz catqui in intlaqual chichimeca: nupalli, nochtli = Here is the Chichimeca's food: nopal cactus, tuna (Tlatelolco, 1540–80)
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), 196.

opeuhqui tlaçoti tlacualtzintli = food began to get more expensive
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), 154–155.

auh in atle nezi in itlaqual iquac mocavaya in tequitl = and when their food did not appear, then tribute ceased (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 248.

Tlatolli itlaqual. Iquac mitoa: in aquin itlaton ic moyolitlacoa, zan niman teahoaz = A word is his meal. This is said about the person who is wounded by any little thing and immediately starts quarreling with people.
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 100–101.

Ca nauh, ca notlaqual. Quitoznequi: ca naxca, ca notlatqui, ca nonetlayecoltiliz. = It is my food and drink. This means: These are my lands, these are my tools; these are my means of livelihood.
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 138–139.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

Auh in centecpantin quitlaecoltizque yn altepetl yvan in teopan auh inin monequi machoz ca amo yevatl ypan mocaqui yn tepan tequitl anoҫo covatequitl ca ҫan tlapiyeliztequitl
Av ievantin omoteneuhque amo tle ynchan quivalcuizque amo quavitl amo tlaqualli amo ҫacatl amo maҫatlaqualli amo ma ytla occentlamantli = Y una veintena dará servicio al pueblo y al templo. Y esto es necesario que se sepa, que no se entiende esto por trabajo del templo o trabajo de obras públicas, sino sólo trabajo de vigilancia.
Y éstos que se han citado no traerán nada de sus casas, ni leña, ni comida, ni zacate, ni "comida de venados", ni otra cosa alguna (Cuauhtinchan, Puebla, s. XVI)
Luis Reyes García, "Ordenanzas para el gobierno de Cuauhtinchan, año de 1559," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 10 (1972), 290–291.

Cuix in, yquac aca omomiquili in àço mohuayolqui in áço, oc çe tlacatl, cuix Ayatl, piçietl, mecapilli, tomin, atl, tlaqualli, oanquihuicaltique, in ipan oanquitocaque, oanquiquimiloque in amo oquima in teopixqui? = Por ventura quando murio alguno, o tu pariente, ò otro qualquiera enterrasteslo, echandole e la sepultura manta de Nequen, piciete, mecapal, çapatos, dineros, comida, y veuida, y todo á escusas de vuestro Ministro?
Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language, 1634, eds. Barry D. Sell and John Frederick Schwaller, with Lu Ann Homza (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 82–83.

tlacualtzintli macozquen yyehuatin yn teopa cuicanime = se dé de comer a los cantores de la iglesia (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), 132–133.

Inic vmpa intlaqual muchihuaz in tzopilome, in cocoyo = Allá se convertirá en comida de los zopilotes, de los coyotes
Huehuehtlahtolli. Testimonios de la antigua palabra, ed. Librado Silva Galeana y un estudio introductorio por Miguel León-Portilla (México: Secretaría de Educación Pública, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1991), 56–57.

themes: 
Food, Eating, Cooking