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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Taco has a lot of meanings in
Spanish, and apparently only means "something to eat" in Mexico, if you can go
by the dictionaries. Corominas, working from the basic Castilian definition
as "peg, plug," notes a first use from 1607 , and says:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>"Esta palabra, con sus deriv., es comun a
las principales lenguas romances y germanicas del Occidente. [Note: my first
question here was: if it is common to <EM>all </EM>the Western European
languages, what is it in English? And then I realized: "tack," which like a
peg/plug is used to stick in something. Corominas continues:] De origen
incierto. No hay razones firmes para asegurar si pas'o del germ'anico al romance
o viceversa, o si se cre'o paralelamente en ambos grupos linguisticos. Quiza
imitacion del ruido del tarugo al ser clavado en la pared." Like other
etymologists, he notes that <EM>tac'on</EM> is a variant of
<EM>taco</EM>.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>Corominas is notoriously resistant to
accepting Nahuatl etymologies, but in this case he may be onto something. If the
word, in its Mexican sense, were derived from Nahuatl, I would expect
to see earlier occurrences. In Lizardi's <EM>Periquillo Sarniento</EM> (which I
just finished translating into English, to be published this month by
Hackett--this is another kind of plug!), it is only used once, in the outmoded
phrase "aire de taco," which has nothing to do with Taco Bell. Prepared food
that sounds, from the description, like a modern-day taco is called instead an
<EM>envuelto</EM>.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>I notice that the RAE Diccionario Manual
gives among its definitions: "cilindro de trapo, papel, estopa o cosa parecida,
que se coloca entre la polvora y el proyectil en las armas de fuego, para que el
tiro salga con fuerza" (yet another kind of plug), and also "canuto de madera
con que juegan los muchachos lanzando, por medio del aire comprimido,
<EM>tacos</EM> de papel o de otra materia." Based on such images, the snack
formed by rolling a tortilla into a cilinder around a plug of food could
metaphorically be called a taco.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>(Note, finally, that nowadays i hear the
word <EM>taco</EM> used in Mexico, at least in SLP, to refer to any amount of
food that one brings home from a party -- not necessarily rolled in a tortilla;
but I assume this is an extension of the original meaning.)</FONT></DIV></DIV>
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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> Nahua language and culture discussion on
behalf of John F. Schwaller<BR><B>Sent:</B> Fri 3/5/2004 2:33 PM<BR><B>To:</B>
NAHUAT-L@LISTS.UMN.EDU<BR><B>Subject:</B> Taco<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=2>A friend of mine, who is not a subscriber and who does not study
Nahuatl<BR>sent me the following query:<BR><BR>>But the real reason I'm
writing is to ask you a question about Nahuatl. Is<BR>>there a word for
taco? When I looked in Santamaria, the first gastronomic<BR>>references
are from Manuel Payno and Luis Inclan, and of course the etymology<BR>>is a
Spanish (or French) word for a cloth plug for a musket shot.<BR><BR>Is there a
root in Nahuatl? The closest thing I could come up with on the<BR>spot was
"tlaco" meaning half, perhaps referring to the folded-over nature<BR>of the
tortilla in a taco.<BR><BR>John F. Schwaller<BR>Vice Chancellor for Academic
Affairs and Dean<BR>315 Behmler Hall<BR>University of Minnesota, Morris<BR>600 E
4th Street<BR>Morris, MN 56267<BR>320-589-6015<BR>FAX
320-589-6399<BR>schwallr@mrs.umn.edu<BR></FONT></P></DIV>
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