barbecue

Where does the word "barbecue" come from? It comes from Taíno barbacoa, passing through Spanish before entering English (1600s).

Barbecue’s story begins in Taíno: barbacoa meant “a raised cooking frame.” A raised wooden framework for cooking or sleeping. By 1500s, the word had taken hold in Spanish as barbacoa. The Taíno cooked on a raised wooden frame over a fire; Spanish explorers recorded the word in Hispaniola. It reached English by 1600s as barbecue. Spread through English colonial contact in the Caribbean and Americas. Today, barbecue means food cooked over an open fire or grill, or a social gathering centered on such cooking.

1. Stage 1 · Taíno · pre-1500s barbacoa "a raised cooking frame", a raised wooden framework for cooking or sleeping.
2. Stage 2 · Spanish · 1500s barbacoa "a method of slow-cooking meat", the Taíno cooked on a raised wooden frame over a fire; Spanish explorers recorded the word in Hispaniola.
3. Stage 3 · English · 1600s barbecue "grilled or slow-cooked meat, or the event", spread through English colonial contact in the Caribbean and Americas.