page_title: Taco
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Taco / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: Taco fixin's
context_page_description: A taco is a traditional Mexican dish consisting of a small hand-sized corn or wheat tortilla topped with a filling. The tortilla is then folded around the filling and eaten by hand. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, pork, chicken, seafood, vegetables, and cheese, allowing great versatility and variety. They are often garnished with various condiments, such as salsa, guacamole, or sour cream, and vegetables, such as lettuce, onion, tomatoes, and chiles. Tacos are a common form of antojitos, or Mexican street food, which have spread around the world.
  Tacos can be contrasted with similar foods such as burrito, which are often much larger and rolled rather than folded, taquitos which are rolled and fried, or chalupas/tostadas, in which the tortilla is fried before filling.
context_section_description: The origins of the taco are not precisely known, and etymologies for the culinary usage of the word are generally theoretical. According to the Real Academia Española, publisher of Diccionario de la Lengua Española, the word taco describes a typical Mexican dish of a maize tortilla folded around food. This meaning of the Spanish word "taco" is a Mexican innovation, but in other dialects "taco" is used to mean "wedge; wad, plug; billiard cue; blowpipe; ramrod; short, stocky person; [or] short, thick piece of wood." In this non-culinary usage, the word "taco" has cognates in other European languages, including the French word "tache" and the English word "tack (nail)."
  According to one etymological theory, the culinary meaning of "taco" derives from its "plug" meaning as employed among Mexican silver miners, who used explosive charges in plug form consisting of a paper wrapper and gunpowder filling.
  Indigenous origins for the culinary word "taco" are also proposed. One possibility is that the word derives from the Nahuatl word "tlahco", meaning "half" or "in the middle," in the sense that food would be placed in the middle of a tortilla. Furthermore, dishes analogous to the taco were known to have existed in Pre-Columbian society—for example, the Nahuatl word "tlaxcalli" (a type of corn tortilla).
caption: Various taco ingredients
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