taco

[ tah-koh; Spanish tah-kaw ]

noun

, plural ta·cos [tah, -kohz, tah, -kaws].

1. Mexican Cooking. a tortilla filled with various ingredients, as beans, rice, chopped meat, cheese, and tomatoes, and folded over in half or rolled into a loose cylinder shape: The downside of hard-shell tacos is that you can’t fit as much stuff in a fried tortilla.

   My favorite breakfast taco has eggs, bacon, and cheese on a flour tortilla.

   The downside of hard-shell tacos is that you can’t fit as much stuff in a fried tortilla.

taco

/ ˈtɑːkəʊ /

noun

1. Mexican cookery a tortilla folded into a roll with a filling and usually fried

Word History and Origins

Origin of taco¹

First recorded in 1930–35; from Mexican Spanish; perhaps a shortening of taco de minero “miner’s plug,” from the resemblance of the food to an explosive charge used in silver mines, from Spanish taco “wad, plug, wedge”; further origin uncertain

Word History and Origins

Origin of taco¹

from Mexican Spanish, from Spanish: literally, a snack, a bite to eat