tamale
UK /təˈmɑː.liː/ · US /təˈmɑ.li/ noun, proper noun
Forms tamales
- noun A Mexican dish of cornmeal dough shell filled with various ingredients (e.g. chopped beef, pork, sweet filling) then steamed in corn husks.
- proper noun A city in Ghana, the capital city of the Northern Region.
Synonyms
humita tamal
Etymology
Back-formation from the plural tamales, derived from Latin American Spanish tamales, plural of tamal, derived from Nahuatl tamalli (“wrapped”), derived from Proto-Uto-Aztecan *tïmaL-. Compare O'odham cemait (“tortilla”), Hopi tuma (“stone griddle for cooking corn flatbread”), Ute tʉ'ma- (“to roast under ashes”).
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “tamale”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details