barbacoa

Forms

barbacoa f (plural barbacoas)^[1]

Etymology

It is a word of the Caribbean, probably borrowed from Taíno barbacoa (“framework of sticks”).^[2][3][1] Corominas says only that it comes from an indigenous language of the Caribbean area, and Moliner and the DAMER call it Antillean.^[3][4][5] Friederici found its home uncertain: the island Arawaks of Hispaniola or the mainland of Tierra Firme (the Cuna of Castilla del Oro, or western Venezuela); he cites de Goeje, who assigns it to the Taíno dialect of the island Arawaks.^[6] Henríquez Ureña counts it among the Taíno words, and Cuervo too took it to have come from Cuba and Haiti.^[7][8] Lenz suspected that the senses “raised platform” and “grill” have separate sources.^[9]

The Spanish word is the source of English barbecue, first recorded in the 1690s for a framework for grilling meat.^[10][3][1] Corominas traces the English word to the Mexican and Salvadoran sense “grill for roasting meat”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Boyd-Bowman's first record is from Tierra Firme in 1513, where chiefs keep something en las barbacoas como maíz “in the barbacoas like maize”, that is, on raised storage platforms.^[11] A text of 1518 from the same region, the date Corominas gives, explains barbacoas as trough-like frames on which much roast meat could be carried.^[11][3] In 1526 Fernández de Oviedo describes the Indians roasting their meat sobre unos palos que ponen a manera de parrillas o trévedes en hueco que ellos llaman barbacoas “on some sticks they set like grills or trivets over a hollow, which they call barbacoas”, with the fire underneath.^[12][13][6]

Semantic evolution

The word first named many kinds of raised framework of sticks or canes: the grill over a fire, the platform from which the maize fields were watched, beds raised on posts (Nueva Granada, 1538–1539), lofts and houses built on posts (Motolinía, Cieza de León) and frames for carrying loads.^[11][12][14] Vox derives the modern sense “grill” from the shape of these frames.^[14] Lenz noted that the word had been lost in Chile since the 18th century.^[9]

Salvá (1846) entered it as an Americanism for a hurdle raised on forked posts, and the Academy in 1899 for meat roasted in a pit heated like an oven, the Mexican dish.^[15][16][17] Alemany (1917) listed the regional senses: a bed of canes, a door of wattle in Peru, a watch platform, a house on stilts, a loft for grain, an arbour in Costa Rica and Ecuador, a litter in Colombia, and the grill and roast meat of Mexico and El Salvador.^[18] In Cuba it was a loft under the roof for grain and fruit.^[19][20] The sense of an outdoor meal of roast meat developed in the United States in the 18th century, and Bénaben says the custom and the modern sense came to Spain from there.^[21][10] Today the Academy puts the grill and the food cooked on it first.^[2]

Timeline

• 1513 – first record, from Tierra Firme, for a storage platform.^[11]
• 1518 – frames for carrying roast meat; the date Corominas gives.^[11][3]
• 1526 – Fernández de Oviedo describes the grill of sticks over a fire.^[13][12]
• 1536–1541 – Motolinía uses it in New Spain for a loft where people sleep.^[12]
• 1690s – English barbecue is recorded.^[10]
• 1846 – Salvá enters it as an Americanism.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy defines it as meat roasted in a pit.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A barbecue: a grill for roasting meat or fish in the open air.^[2][14][1]
2. The food cooked on such a grill, or the meal at which it is eaten: Celebraron el cumpleaños con una barbacoa en el campo.^[2][14]
3. (Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru) A frame of green sticks laid over a pit in the ground, used for roasting meat.^[2][5]
4. (Mexico) Meat, usually of lamb or goat, cooked slowly in a pit covered over like an oven.^[22][17][1]
5. (Costa Rica, Dominican Republic) A trellis or arbour for climbing plants.^[2][23]
6. (Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico) A raised platform from which the maize fields are watched.^[2][5]
7. (Cuba, Ecuador, Peru) A small house built high on trees or posts.^[2]
8. (Cuba, Ecuador, Dominican Republic) A rough loft or platform high in a house, where grain and fruit are kept.^[2][19]
9. (Ecuador, Peru) A hurdle of sticks on posts, used as a bed.^[2]

Related words

• English barbecue

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. barbacoa
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. barbacoa
4. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. barbacoa
5. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. barbacoa
6. ^ a b Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 78
7. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 166
8. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1914), Apuntaciones críticas sobre el lenguaje bogotano, 6th ed., París: A. & R. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 528
9. ^ a b Lenz, Rodolfo (1904–1910), Diccionario etimolójico de las voces chilenas derivadas de lenguas indíjenas americanas, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Cervantes, p. s.v. barbacoa
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. barbacoa
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. barbacoa
13. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. barbacoa
14. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. barbacoa
15. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 139
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 126
17. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 187
18. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 224
19. ^ a b Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo, p. 34
20. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 50
21. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. barbacoa
22. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (2001), Diccionario breve de mexicanismos, México: Academia Mexicana / Fondo de Cultura Económica, p. 29
23. ^ Gagini, Carlos (1893), Diccionario de barbarismos y provincialismos de Costa Rica, San José: Tipografía Nacional, p. 84