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ta·co

(täkō)

n. pl. ta·cos

A corn tortilla folded around a filling such as ground meat or cheese.

[Mexican Spanish (perhaps originally in tacos de minero, "miner's plugs," tacos made from tortillas wrapped around a simple filling and briefly fried, such tacos being so called because of their resemblance to the explosive charges, consisting of gunpowder in a paper wrapper, that were plugged into the rock face by Mexican silver miners), from Spanish taco, plug, wad; akin to Italian tacco, chock, wedge, perhaps of Germanic origin and akin to Old English staca, stake.]

(click for a larger image)

taco

hard (left) and soft (right) tacos

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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