Barbacoa

//ˌbɑː(ɹ)bəˈkoʊ.ə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Meat slow-cooked over an open fire, characteristic of Latin American cuisine. uncountable

    "At first Andablo tried to make barbacoa with cow heads, but something about American beef didn't taste right. ""

Example

More examples

"At first Andablo tried to make barbacoa with cow heads, but something about American beef didn't taste right. ""

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish barbacoa (whence also barbecue), from Taíno barbakoa (“framework of sticks”), the raised wooden structure the natives used to either sleep on or cure meat. Originally “meal of roasted meat or fish”.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.