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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word taco

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
1406–1411 Crónica de Juan II de Castilla, in a 15th-century copy More words from the 15th century
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Spanish taco
English taco

Pronunciation

  • /ˈtako/, [ˈt̪a.ko][1]

Forms

taco m (plural tacos)[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.[2][3][4] Corominas places it in a family of words shared by the main Romance languages and the western Germanic ones, and finds no firm reason to decide whether it passed from Germanic to Romance, the other way, or arose in both independently.[3][4]

Related Romance forms are Italian tacco (“heel of a shoe”) and taccone, Catalan tac (“plug fitted into a hole in a wall”), Old French tacon (“patch for a shoe”), frequent from the 12th to the early 16th century, and Portuguese taco.[3] On the Germanic side Kluge and Brüch compared Middle High German zacke (“prong, point”), Middle Low German tacke, Middle Dutch tac (“branch, prong”) and English tack (“nail, peg”), and Brüch reconstructed Gothic *takkō;[5] Corominas finds a Gothic source unlikely, since the word is old in French and the Germanic family is limited to the western languages, of doubtful age and remote in meaning.[3] He also rejects Meyer-Lübke's link with Italian tacca and French tache (“stain”).[3] His provisional conclusion is that the word imitates the sound of a peg being driven in or of a heel striking the floor; the BDELC and Bénaben repeat this view.[3][4][5] Wiktionary instead thinks it probably borrowed from the Italian word, ultimately from Germanic.[1] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 derived it from a Celtic word for “nail”, and Alemany's dictionary of 1917 from atacar.[6][7]

The Mexican dish, a filled rolled tortilla, is a sense of the same word for the DLE and DAMER.[2][8] Gómez de Silva derives it from the sense “piece of cheese or ham eaten as a snack”, and Etymonline glosses the Mexican word as “light lunch”, literally “plug, wadding”.[9][10] Wiktionary gives it a separate etymology: either the same word, the first tacos being rolled like the paper charges of miners, or from Nahuatl tlahco (“middle, half”), referring to the filling.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit that is clearly the word is in the Crónica de Juan II de Castilla (1406–1411, in a 15th-century copy), which orders someone to take charge of los tacos que están fechos, e toda la otra madera, “the tacos already made, and all the other timber”.[11] In Juan de Mena's verse (before 1435, in a copy of c. 1465) it is the wad of a gun: más faze tirar al trueno quien ataca bien el taco, “he who rams the wad home makes the gun fire better”.[11] Earlier hits are a personal name.[11] Corominas, who knew no record before Oudin's dictionary of 1607, defined there as the rod with which harquebuses are loaded and the wad between ball and powder, notes that the late date says little about a word of material culture.[3]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 gave three senses: a plug that tightens something, the ramrod of a harquebus, and the mallet used to strike the ball in the game of trucos.[12] Autoridades added the wad of tow, hemp or paper rammed onto the charge, which Góngora used in 1624.[13][3] Figurative senses followed: a belch in Juan Hidalgo's thieves' cant of 1609, an oath or curse from 1646, a drink of wine in Terreros.[3][14][15] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 has the billiard cue and the children's popgun, and Alemany's of 1917 the pad of a wall calendar and the light snack.[16][7]

Today the taco is also a wall plug and a cube of cheese or ham.[2] In Spain the colloquial senses “swear word”, “mess” and, in the plural, “years of age” are common.[1][17] In much of South America, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico it means the heel of a shoe, which Corominas does not take for an Italianism; in Central America and Mexico it is also a football boot.[3][8] In Mexico it is above all a rolled maize tortilla with a filling, or any light meal, and English borrowed it in this sense in 1901.[18][8][10]

Timeline

  • 1406–1411 – the Crónica de Juan II mentions tacos among timber (in a 15th-century copy).[11]
  • before 1435 – Juan de Mena uses it for the wad of a gun (in a copy of c. 1465).[11]
  • 1607 – Oudin defines it as the ramrod and the wad;[14] Corominas's first record.[3]
  • 1609 – Juan Hidalgo's cant vocabulary gives taco “belch”.[14]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records the plug, the ramrod and the mallet of the game of trucos.[12]
  • 1646 – the sense “oath, curse” in the Estebanillo González.[3]
  • 1901 – English borrows taco for the Mexican dish.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A peg or plug: a short, thick piece of wood, metal or other material fitted into a hole.[2][1]
  2. A wad of rag, paper or tow placed between the powder and the projectile in some firearms, or used to tamp a blast hole.[2][19]
  3. A ramrod for loading firearms.[2]
  4. A billiard cue.[2][1]
  5. A pad of sheets of paper, such as the sheets of a wall calendar: un taco de folios.[2][19]
  6. (Mexico, Central America) A tortilla of maize rolled around a filling.[2][8]
  7. A small cube of cheese, ham or the like served as an appetiser; a light snack between meals.[2]
  8. A wall plug of wood or plastic into which a nail or screw is driven.[2]
  9. (Spain, colloquial) A swear word.[1][15]
  10. (South America, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico) The heel of a shoe;[8][1] (Mexico, Central America) a football boot.[8][1]
  11. (Spain, colloquial, in the plural) Years of age: Mi abuela ya ha cumplido noventa tacos.[1][17]

Word family

  • taquera
  • tacón
  • tacada
  • atacar
  • taquería
  • taquito
  • taquiza
  • tarugo
  • Italian tacco
  • Portuguese taco

Usage notes

The fixed phrase echar tacos means to swear or speak in great anger.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. taco
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 368
  4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. taco
  5. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. taco
  6. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1003
  7. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1551
  8. ^ a b c d e f Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. taco
  9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (2001), Diccionario breve de mexicanismos, México: Academia Mexicana / Fondo de Cultura Económica, p. 209
  10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. taco
  12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1314
  13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 209
  14. ^ a b c Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 200
  15. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 569
  16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 825
  17. ^ a b León, Víctor (1980), Diccionario de argot español y lenguaje popular, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, p. s.v. taco
  18. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 114
  19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. taco
  20. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 732

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Taco.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/taco. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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