Foods in Spanish, iDeliciosas! Quiz

Answer: fish

"Catholics eat fish on Fridays during Lent."

When speaking of fish that is being served as food, Spanish speakers use 'pescado', the past participle of the verb 'pescar', meaning "to fish, to catch"; so in other words, it is caught fish. When speaking of fish swimming in the sea or an aquarium, they use 'el pez' or the plural 'los peces'. This comes from the Latin 'piscis', its plural 'pisces' being the name of the 12th sign of the Zodiac in English. The Proto-Indo-European root of 'piscis' is '*pisk', which is also the source of the Proto-Germanic "*fiskaz", which is the source of the English word 'fish'.

Answer: egg

"Which came first, the chicken (hen) or the egg?"

The word 'huevo' is derived from the Latin 'ovo' or 'ovum', meaning "egg". English adopted the word 'ovum' to mean a mammal's mature egg released by an ovary; in Spanish this is 'el óvulo' or sometimes 'el huevo' as well. The Mexican dish huevos rancheros ("ranch-style eggs"), consisting of fried or poached eggs covered with a spicy sauce of red or green tomatoes, beans, and served on a tortilla, sometimes with guacamole, is well-known in the United States.

Answer: rice

"In China, people eat lots of rice."

'Arroz con pollo' is a popular traditional Spanish dish of rice and chicken, usually with onions and tomatoes, and variously seasoned with garlic, oregano, cilantro, and other spices. Different regions of Latin America add their own twist to the dish.

'Arroz' likely comes from the Arabic 'ar-ruzz', which like the Greek 'oryza' comes from an Indo-Iranian root related to the Persian 'birinc' and the Tamil 'aricy'.

Cuban restaurants serve a dish called "Moors and Christians", a dish of black beans ('habicheulas' or 'porotos negros'), which represent the Moors, and rice, which represent the European Christians. A contributor to an etymology site in Chile has jokingly suggested that perhaps the 'arroz', being of Arabic origin, should instead represent the Moors, and the word for beans, which comes from Latin, a European language, should represent the Christians.

Answer: orange juice

"Each morning I like to have orange juice."

The word 'jugo' comes from the Latin 'succus' meaning "juice" or "sap" and also "broth" (whence we get the English word 'succulent'). The transformation is typical between Latin and Castilian Spanish, to change an intervocalic /k/ sound (that is, appearing between two vowels) to a hard /g/ sound, and then also to make an aspiration where was an initial /s/ sound.

The Proto-Indo-European root of 'sucus' is '*seu-', which in Germanic languages becomes 'sup-', which gives rise to the English word 'soup'.

Now we get to 'naranja'. Sanskrit "narangah" refers to an orange grove; from there it passed to Persian and then to Arabic (narang). In the 11th century, the bitter orange is introduced to Europe. In Spanish, the word was altered to "naranja" for the fruit and "anaranjado" for the color. Sweet oranges brought from India by Portuguese traders in the 15th century quickly displaced the bitter oranges from Persia. In modern Spanish, 'naranja' refers to the sweet orange; the bitter orange is called 'naranja andaluza', 'naranja amarga', or 'naranja de Sevilla'. Modern Greek calls the bitter orange 'nerantzi' and the sweet orange 'portokali' ("Portuguese").

Answer: cheese

"Many people believe that mice eat cheese, but it is not true."

'Queso' seems to come from the Latin 'caseus' (whence Italian 'cacio' and Irish 'caise' and German 'Käse').

Nonetheless, Pedro Felipe Monlau in his 1856 'Diccionario Etimológico de La Lengua Castellana' (Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language) offers some interesting theories. One is that 'queso' comes from 'coaxeus', from 'coacto lacte', as cheese is coagulated milk. Another is that it may come from 'carere sero' as cheese lacks whey (serum) -- or in Spanish, 'carece de suero'. His third theory is that the root is 'capsa' ("box") because cheese is made in molds that give it its form. And from Latin 'forma' we get French 'fromage' and Italian 'formaggio'.

Since I used both Italian words for cheese, let me clarify that 'cacio' is usually sheep's cheese from Tuscany, and 'formaggio' is the generic word for cheese.

Answer: leafy greens

"I like to eat big salads, with lots of leafy greens."

Leafy greens (or just "greens") in Spanish are expressed 'verduras de hoja', literally "vegetables of the leaf" or "leafy vegetables". If you see just plain 'verduras', then it means vegetables in general (usually). You might notice the kinship with the word 'verde' ("green"), which comes from the Latin 'viridis', but by itself a 'verdura' can refer to any vegetable, although Collins Spanish Dictionary and El Diccionario de Real Academia Española (RAE) indicate it can specifically refer to "green vegetables".

Vegetable soup is 'sopa de verduras'. Root vegetables are 'tubérculos comestibles'. A vegetable garden is "un jardín de vegetales" or "un huerto" or "una huerta" depending on what country you are in.

Raw vegetables are "verdura cruda" (always used in the singular) or "vegetales crudos" -- you might recognize the connection to the French appetizer "crudités", raw vegetable strips (usually with a dipping sauce). Here's an example: 'Los doctores dicen que los estadounidenses no comen suficiente verdura cruda' means "Doctors say that Americans do not eat enough raw veggies."

Answer: fruits

"Bananas, apples, and oranges are fruits."

The Latin 'fructis' is the source of the Spanish 'fruta', the Italian 'frutta' and the English 'fruit', not to mention similar words in other languages.

In Spanish, when speaking of fruit botanically or figuratively, one uses the masculine word 'fruto', but when speaking collectively of edible fruits ('los frutos comestibles'), one uses the feminine word 'fruta'. "Look at that bowl of fruit" would be "Mira ese tazón de fruta". "I like to eat fruit" would be "Me gusta comer fruta". But "to bear fruit" is "dar fruto" and "the fruit of the vine" is "el fruto de la vid".

Answer: pork

"Neither Muslims nor Jews eat pork" (literally, "meat of the pig").

Sometimes "pork" is written simply as 'cerdo', whereas the animal "pig" is either 'cerdo', 'cochino', or 'puerco', a somewhat misleading cognate. "Pork" comes from the Old French 'porc', which like 'puerco' comes from the Latin 'porcus', for a tame swine raised for food. In some parts of Latin America, 'pork' is 'el carne de cochino' or simply 'el chancho'.

A suckling pig (a piglet that has not been weaned) is 'lechón', or sometimes 'lechoncito' or 'cerdito' (or 'chanchito' in Latin America) to emphasize its smallness and cuteness. But don't get too attached; grilled piglet, or 'cochinillo asado', is occasionally enjoyed in Spain.

"To pig out" is 'tragar como cerdo' or 'comer como un cerdo'. A pork rind or scratching is a 'corteza de cerdo'. A pig farmer is a 'criador de cerdos'. It seems 'cerdo' comes to Spanish relatively recently. Classical Spanish literature uses 'puerco', 'marrano', or 'cochino' for the pig.

Answer: carrots

"Bugs Bunny likes carrots, but real rabbits do not like them."

Many Romance languages derive their word for the root vegetable we call carrot from the Latin 'carota', which comes from the Greek 'karoton'. In Italian, it's 'carota' as well; in French, 'carrotte'.

In Spanish, however, the word is 'zanahoria', which comes from the Arabic word 'isfannaryya' used in Morocco, eastern Algeria, and Tunisia, and in some regions pronounced 'sefnnariya' or 'sennariya'. Spanish often has words that are different from the other Romance language because the Moors conquered the Iberian peninsula, and many Arabisms entered the Spanish and Portuguese languages. "Carrot" in Portuguese is 'cenoura', a cognate to Spanish 'zanahoria'

It was once believed that 'zanahoria' was of Basque origin, from 'aza-horia' (meaning "yellow-skin") but the third edition of the RAE confirms the Arabic theory. Others have speculated that the Arabic 'isfannaryya' has roots in the Greek 'staphylînos' which in the Classical period referred to carrots, although the word is derived from 'staphylē', meaning "grape cluster".

Real rabbits ('los conejos reales') prefer the greens ('las hojas de la zanahoria').

Answer: corn

"The farmer grew corn (maize) last year."

'Maíz' is what Americans call "corn" (originally "Indian corn" but this now refers specifically to decorative multi-colored "flint corn") and what Brits call "maize". In Europe it was formerly called "Turkey corn" due to mistaken notions of its origin. Australians and New Zealanders typically follow the American usage. "Corn" in Britain usually refers to the principal crop of a region, such as wheat in England and oats in Scotland.

The word 'maíz' comes from the Arawakan word 'mahiz' (the language of the natives of Haiti, also called Taino). It entered the Spanish language during the Columbian Exchange, the widespread transfer of plants, animals, people, and ideas between America, West Africa, and Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Other Spanish words for corn or corn-on-the-cob are 'choclo' (chiefly in South America), 'elote' (in some Latin American countries), and 'mazorca'. At a Chilean etymology site, a contributor expressed curiosity that 'maíz' is perceived as more Spanish than these other words, when it is of indigenous American origin. Maize/corn was an important part of the diet of Pre-Columbian American peoples.