tortilla

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish tortilla,^[2][3][4][5] in American Spanish the name of a maize pancake,^[6][7][8][9] the diminutive of torta (“cake”) with the suffix -illa,^[2][9][10] from Late Latin tōrta (“flat cake; round loaf”).^[8][9][3] In Spain the word meant an omelette from the 17th century and a small cake from the 15th century or earlier, and the maize sense is recorded in a text from Mexico in the 16th century.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary relates the Late Latin word to a Greek name for an Attic cake of dates, flour, water and oil baked in ashes, and traces that to an Egyptian phrase for baked bread.^[6] The Late Latin word is also the source of torte.^[9][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thin flat cake of maize: 1648, in Thomas Gage's The English-American;^[2][7] Etymonline also dates it to the 1640s.^[9] Barnhart's first record is tartillo in 1699, with the spelling tortilla from 1828.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The Spanish sense, a thick omelette with potatoes, is recorded from 1829, and in Spain and Cuba a tortilla is an omelette.^[2][9] Tortillas of wheat flour are mentioned by 1927,^[9] and in British use tortilla is also short for tortilla chip (1960).^[2]

Timeline

• 1648 – a thin flat cake of maize.^[2][7]
• 1699 – the form tartillo.^[8]
• 1829 – a Spanish omelette.^[2]
• 1927 – flour tortilla.^[9]
• 1960 – a tortilla chip.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thin round flatbread of maize or wheat flour, cooked on a griddle and eaten hot or cold, often wrapped around a filling, as in Mexican cooking.^[7][11][2]
2. In Spanish cooking, a thick omelette with potatoes, usually eaten in wedges.^[2][5]

Related words

• torte
• torta
• tart

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins