Spanish Loanwords in Food

Cindy & Freya

Tobacco, PotatoEnglish or Spanish?

Spanish words come to English from three primary sources

1. Trade (Business)2. Cowboy (Worker)3. Things no English equivalent

Some we know are Spanish but we’re not sure exactly how they got here.

Trade

• In the 17th and 18th centuries• American and English traders plied the ports

of the West Indies and South America.• They stay in these ports, acquainting the

English speakers with Spanish culture.• Trade brought a number of local Spanish

words into the language.

Cowboy

• Many of Mexican and Spanish cowboys entered American.

• They work in what is now the U.S. Southwest.

Things no English equivalent

• There are several words for food and drink that just can’t describe in English

• Like avocado and banana.

Addition information

• Many of the words changed meaning upon entering English by adopting a narrower meaning than in the original language.

• Most of them retain the spelling and even (more or less) the pronunciation of Spanish.

• Some of them were adopted into the Spanish language from elsewhere before they were passed on to English.

tomato

• from Spanish tomate • The tomato is native to South America.• Some believes that Christopher Columbus was

the first European to take back the tomato, as early as 1493.

• The Spanish also brought the tomato to Europe.

Potatofrom Spanish patata

Bananafrom Spanish or Portuguese banana

Papayafrom Spanish papaya

chicha from Spanish chicha, =maize

vanillafrom Spanish vainilla

chilifrom Spanish chile

cigarette

from Spanish cigarro

• The earliest forms of cigarettes have been attested in Central America around the 9th century in the form of reeds and smoking tubes.

• The Maya, and later the Aztecs, smoked tobacco and various psychoactive drugs in religious rituals and frequently depicted priests and deities smoking on pottery and temple engravings.

• Upon the arrival of Europeans in North America, it quickly became popularized as a trade item and as a recreational drug.

Tequila

• Tequila was first produced in the 16th century near the location of the city of Tequila

• The Aztec people had previously made a fermented beverage from the agave plant, long before the Spanish arrived in 1521.

• When the Spanish conquistadors ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill this agave drink to produce North America's first indigenous distilled spirit.

taco

a typical Mexican dish

• from taco • taco is a typical Mexican dish of a maize

tortilla (墨西哥玉米薄餅 ) folded around food. • The taco predates the arrival of Europeans in

Mexico. • There is anthropological evidence that the

indigenous people living in the lake region of the Valley of Mexico traditionally ate tacos filled with small fish.

• Spanish exploration of the New World

• These loanwords are from the transmission through Spain of a knowledge of America.

• The consequence of increased Spanish overseas expansion since 16th century

Paella

a Spanish dish of rice, chicken, fish and vegetables, cooked and served in a large shallow pan .

cafeteria

from cafetería

Reference Source• Spanish Loan Words by Sharon http://www.dailywritingtips.com• Spanish Words Become Our Own http://spanish.about.com• The Spanish Language as a Medium of Cultural Diffusion in the Age of

Discovery by Lawrence B. Kiddle• American Speech, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Dec., 1952), pp. 241-256

(article consists of 16 pages)

Thank You!