BBQ (1951)

[Beverly Flanigan]

The word appears very early in colonial and exploration literature, as a
Spanish word, I believe.  I can't recall the spelling, but it's something
like "barbecoa"--a guess from long-ago research on American Indian contacts
with explorers.  But it's definitely a real word.

At 08:47 AM 10/28/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>From:    "Joanne M. Despres" <jdespres at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM>
>: On 27 Oct 2003, at 3:06, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>
>: > Merriam-Webster has an entry for "BBQ," but no date.
>
>: FYI, we date acronyms, but not abbreviations.
>
>Is "BBQ" really an abbreviation? I wonder because i conducted a series of
>sociolinguistic interviews a few years ago where i asked about barbecue--and
>as i recall, i had a couple people inform me that the correct spelling is
>BBQ, and that "barbecue" is just something that people came up with to match
>the pronunciation. (The reverse of a spelling pronunciation, i suppose?)
>
>There's definitely some folk etymology going on here, but it seems that, at
>least in some people's minds, BBQ is an actual spelling of an actual word,
>not an abbreviation.
>
>David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
>     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.