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ta·ma·le

(tə-mälē)

A Mexican dish made of chopped meat and crushed peppers, highly seasoned, wrapped in cornhusks spread with masa, and steamed.

[Back-formed singular from plural tamales, from Latin American Spanish tamales, plural of tamal, tamale, from Nahuatl tamalli, of Proto-Uto-Aztecan origin, compare Tohono O'odham čïmait, tortilla, Hopi tïma, stone griddle for cooking corn flatbread, and Southern Paiute tïʔma-, to roast under ashes.]

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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