A Feast of Spanish... Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: nachos

Nacho is short for Ignacio, a common masculine name in Spanish-speaking countries. In 1943, maître d' Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, who worked at the Victory Club restaurant in the Mexican city of Piedras Negras, close to the Texan border, created the dish for a group of US Army wives. As the chef was nowhere to be found, Anaya created the dish by grating cheese over pieces of fried tortilla, and putting them under the broiler to melt the cheese. When one of the ladies asked him about the name of the dish, Anaya replied they could just call it "Nacho's Special". Nachos quickly became a big hit in the US Southwest, and their popularity spread to the whole country and beyond.

The name Ignacio comes from Latin "Ignatius" (fiery, ardent), which is also the English form of the name. A variation of Basque origin, Iñigo, was the original given name of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus.

Answer: anchovy

Though traditional in parts of Italy (especially Naples and the South), the use of anchovies as a pizza topping is divisive among pizza fans. These small, oily fish are commonly found throughout the Mediterranean region, where they have been fished for thousands of years - so it is not surprising that their name also comes from that part of the world. The English word anchovy, first attested in the language in the late 16th century, comes from the Spanish "anchoa", whose ultimate origin is uncertain. Some experts have suggested a Greek origin, others a Genoese or even Basque one.

Another fish-related word of at least partly Spanish origin is tuna, which comes from Latin "thunnus" through Spanish "atún".

Answer: cilantro

Despite its fresh, citrusy flavour, cilantro can engender strong reactions, as some people - because of a genetic peculiarity - perceive it as tasting like dish soap. Cilantro is the name given in Spanish to the leaves of a plant native to the southern Mediterranean region and the Middle East. In American English, the seeds (also widely used in various cuisines) are referred to as coriander - a word derived from Latin "coriandrum". First used in English in the early years of the 20th century, cilantro and the related word culantro (a different, though related, herb) come from the Late Latin alteration "celiandrum".

An interesting detail about the etymology of cilantro is that its ultimate origin may lie in "koris", the Greek word for bedbug, on account of the plant's strong smell - which many find as unpleasant as its taste.

Answer: tapas

Though they are often glamorous (and accordingly expensive) joints in many of the world's large cities, tapas bars have much humbler beginnings - as does the word "tapas" itself. In its singular form, "tapa" means pot cover - from the verb "tapar" (to cover), of Germanic origin, related to the English "tap" and the Italian "tappo" (cork). The name "tapas" for the savoury snacks - hot or cold - served with drinks in Spanish bars has its origin in the traditional custom of covering glasses of wine with slices of bread or ham to keep away flies and other insects. With time, tapas developed into more sophisticated and trendy dishes.

Tapas was first used in English in the 1930s. The word "tapa" for a cloth made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree comes from Tahitian, and is thus unrelated.

Answer: paella

The Mediterranean port city of Valencia has two main food-related claims to fame: oranges and the rice-based dish known as "paella valenciana". Probably the most famous Spanish dish, paella - which includes meats, seafood and vegetables as well as saffron-flavoured rice - is named after the vessel in which it is cooked, a wide, shallow sauté pan with two handles. Strictly speaking, the word "paella" comes from Valencian Catalan rather than Spanish: its origins lie in the Latin word "patella" (small pan), like the Italian "padella" and the French "poêle" (frying pan). Patella is also the scientific name for the kneecap, whose shape is reminiscent of a pan or shallow dish.

Paella was first attested in English in the 1890s, when the dish started becoming popular outside Spain.

Answer: jerky

Jerky is one of the words that Spanish borrowed from Quechua, the language spoken in the Inca Empire (and still widely spoken in the Andean region). The original word "ch'arki" was adapted to Spanish spelling and phonetics, and became "charqui" - Anglicized as jerky. Ch'arki denoted strips of dried and salted meat, a very convenient source of protein during the long journeys on foot at those high altitudes. The name of the Jamaican cooking style known as jerk has the same origin, though it involves rubbing meat with spices before cooking rather than drying it.

Jerky entered the English lexicon around 1850. The verb to jerk (meaning to pull or push quickly) and related words have a completely different origin.

Answer: chocolate

Most people are aware that chocolate came to Europe after the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the early 16th century. In Nahuatl, the language spoken in the Aztec Empire (and still spoken today in that part of the world), the name for the ancestor of our beloved hot chocolate was "xocolatl" - which has been interpreted to mean "bitter water" (at least according to the Royal Spanish Academy, the ultimate authority on the Spanish language). In fact, the beverage consumed in Mesoamerica was quite different from the delicious drink we enjoy in the colder months, as it was usually cold, frothy, and unsweetened, though flavoured with a variety of spices (in particular vanilla and chili pepper).

The name of the raw material from which chocolate is made - cocoa beans ("cacahuatl" in Nahuatl) - also came into English through Spanish. Cacao was first attested in the mid-16th century, while the first use of chocolate dates from the earliest years of the 17th century.

Answer: taco

The popularity of tacos has extended from their native Mexico to the rest of the world - even though the versions of this humble but versatile food found outside Mexico are often quite different from the original. Like other beloved street foods (pizza being a prime example), they are believed to have originated as foods eaten by working people. In this particular case, one of the theories for the origin of the word - which means plug or wad in standard Spanish - lies with Mexican silver miners, who used explosive plugs consisting of gunpowder wrapped in paper.

In the official dictionary of the Spanish language curated by the Royal Spanish Academy, "taco" has 27 listed meanings, a few of which are food-related. In Spain, "taco" describes a piece of ham, cheese or other food eaten as a snack or small appetizer. The word was first used in English in the early years of the 20th century.

Answer: barbecue

Though barbecue is often associated with parts of the US South and Midwest, the origins of both the word and the dish lie in the Caribbean islands, where the Spanish came into contact with a native method of roasting meat by using a wooden framework set on sticks over a fire - so that the meat would be enveloped by both fire and smoke. The Spanish word "barbacoa" for this method - first used in print in 1526 - is believed to be derived from the Taino or Arawak languages spoken in the island of Hispaniola.

First used in English in the mid-17th century, the word was originally spelled "barbacado" or "barbecado". Interestingly, at the time in England and other European countries barbecue was associated with savagery and cannibalism - not surprisingly, since the word cannibal is also of Spanish origin, and comes from the name Carib.

Answer: oregano

A regular fixture on the tables of many an Italian-American restaurant, oregano is a native of the Mediterranean region. The word has its origins in the Classical Greek "origanon" ("joy of the mountain"), which designated wild aromatic herbs related to marjoram. However, it came into English from American Spanish - though the herb known as Mexican oregano is not related to the Mediterranean plant, and has a stronger flavour. Oregano was first attested in English in the 1770s; according to some sources, the Latin form "origanum" and the Old French "origane" were used before being replaced by the Spanish word.

The word oregano has also been suggested as a possible etymology of the name of the US state of Oregon. Though a plant similar to oregano does grow in parts of the state, the theory has been rejected as extremely unlikely.

Answer: vanilla

Like the cacao tree, the vanilla orchid is a native of the tropical regions of the Americas. The custom of flavouring chocolate with vanilla goes back to the early days of the Aztec Empire, in the 15th century, and was introduced to Spain by conquistador Hernán Cortés in 1520. However, unlike chocolate - which retained its native name adapted to Spanish - vanilla got a brand-new Spanish name. The word "vainilla", meaning little pod, is a diminutive form of the Latin "vagina" (sheath), referring to the long, narrow shape of the pods.

Vanilla was first attested in English in the 1660s. In the 18th century, English botanist and gardener Philip Miller described the plant in his popular work "The Gardener's Dictionary" (1731). The colloquial use of vanilla as an adjective to mean plain or conventional dates from the mid-19th century.

Answer: salsa

While outside Mexico "salsa" denotes the chunky, spicy, tomato-based relishes that are often served as an appetizer dip with tortilla chips, in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries (as well as in Italy) the word refers to any kind of sauce. Both salsa and sauce come from Latin "salsus", which means salty; salami and sausage, which both denote meats heavily seasoned with salt, are also related. Salsa was first used in English in the 1960s, when the food item was introduced into English-speaking countries.

The lively Latin dance is believed to have been named after the sauce, as it is a spicy mix of musical styles, like the culinary salsa is a spicy mix of vegetables.

Answer: avocado

The name of the avocado (as well as the plant itself) has its origins in the Americas, where it has been cultivated for thousands of years. The Nahuatl word for the fruit, "ahuacatl", also means testicle: it seems likely that the name of the fruit was adopted to refer to the body part and not the other way round, as some sources report. In any case, the word became "aguacate" in Spanish, and entered English in the 1690s with the form "avogato (pear)".

The lawyer joke in the question stems from the resemblance of "avocado" with "abogado", the Spanish word for lawyer (related to the English advocate). Needless to say, the two words have no connection, as "abogado" comes from Latin. The name of the best-known avocado preparation, guacamole, is a Mexican Spanish word derived from "ahuacatl" and "molli" (Nahuatl for "sauce").

Answer: tortilla

Called "tlaxcalli" ("something baked") in Nahuatl, tortillas - unleavened flatbreads made of cornmeal - originated in Mexico and Central America thousands of years ago. The Spanish gave this flatbread the name of "tortilla", the diminutive form of "torta" (cake) - a word that in Late Latin denoted a round loaf of bread. In Spain, however, a tortilla is what is also called a Spanish omelette - an egg-based dish similar to the Italian frittata. Tortilla entered the English lexicon in the late 17th century.

Common words of Mexican Spanish origin for various kinds of filled tortilla are "burrito" (little donkey), "enchilada" (seasoned with chili) and "quesadilla" (little cheese pastry).

Answer: pimiento

Pimiento is a variety of heart-shaped chili pepper - often bright red in colour - with a sweet, aromatic taste. In Spanish, the masculine word "pimiento" denotes bell peppers, while the feminine "pimienta" means pepper (black or otherwise). Both pimienta and pimiento come from Latin "pigmentum" which meant either colouring (hence the English word pigment) or spice. Pimiento was first used in English in the mid-19th century. The spelling pimento, though occasionally used to refer to the fruit/vegetable, is an alternative name for allspice, or Jamaica pepper.

In the Southern US, pimientos are mixed with cheese and mayonnaise to make a savoury dip called pimento cheese. Small pieces of pimiento are also stuffed into pitted olives.