The origin of the word "barbecue"

By JOE O'CONNELL, cbbqa past President

What is the true history of the origin of word "barbecue"?  This is a component of the American barbecue conjecture. 

Introduction

This article is a work in progress.  There are many website and newspaper stories that claim to report on the origin of the word "barbecue".  However, none of the websites or stories which have been reviewed to date contain any primary or secondary sources.  That it, none of the claims are supported with authoritative documentation.

The accompanying survey of the literature references many claims about the origin of the word.

American Barbecue Conjecture

The common barbecue literature, including websites and articles, contain a common claim for the origin of the word "barbecue", and this claim is a component of the American barbecue conjecture.

The claim states that the English word "barbecue" was derived from the Spanish word "barbicoa", which in turn was taken from a word used by Native Americans (Arawak or Taino tribes) at the time of the early Spanish explorations (circa 1500) and which meant the wooden structure upon which fish and game were hung for smoking or drying.

Origin of the word

The word 'barbecue' in English today has at least four different meanings:

• A cooking device (noun) ("I bought a new offset barbecue")
• A cooking method (verb) ("I prefer to barbecue brisket")
• A cooked food (noun or adj) ("I prefer barbecue without any barbecue sauce")
• A social event (noun) ("I attended a Labor Day barbecue")

Whenever the meaning of barbecue requires clarification, the meaning will be hyphened, as in "barbecue-device", "barbecue-method", etc.

Unresolved questions

The American barbecue conjecture includes several currently-unresolved questions, including:

• Did the Taino language include the word "barbacoa"?
• How did the word reach Europe?
• How did the word reach the English colonies (and thence become part of the common language)?

Taino word

An initial question is whether or not the Taino Native Americans had a word which sounded like "barbacoa" in the pre-Columbian era.  If so, what was their meaning of the word?  And did they teach the word to the Spanish explorers?  If so, did the word travel from the Caribbean to Spain to England and then back to the English colonies?  Alternatively, did the Native Americans near the English colonies have a similar name for the technique?  

Early colonial meaning

One so-far-unsubstantiated claim is that the word "barbecue" (in its various spellings) was not used in the early colonial period to mean anything to do with cooking.  Instead, the word referred to a bed frame, that permitted a person to sleep above the ground or floor and thus away from ground insects and other animals.  Only later in the colonies did the work apply to an apparatus or method dealing with cooking.  

Is the foregoing statement correct?  If so, did the original meaning apply to a cooking structure, and did the meaning change to a sleeping structure by the time the colonists arrived in North America?