# Why "taqueria", not tacoria? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586 "2008-10-26T01:37:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/21 "2008-10-27T13:54:22Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > If anyone wants to experience the kind of mexican food I enjoyed as a kid, go to _La Fortuna_, in San Pablo, CA. Wait, does that include the Vienna sausages? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/22 "2008-10-27T14:21:24Z")
> [@sailor](#): > > In Spain “tortilla” means omelette. Aye, and since torta means flatbread, the thin, flexible flatbreads used in America just got the diminutive. Tortilla without further lastnames in a bar that serves tapas (99% of Spanish bars) means with potatoes. In a place that serves subs, it will ellicit the question “¿de qué?” or “¿francesa, de patata…?” so basically “what do you want in it?” At Mom’s it’s understood to have inside nothing, tuna or chistorra (a kind of chorizo made in Euskal Herria) depending on who’s asked for one… ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/23 "2008-10-27T15:28:26Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > Wait, does that include the Vienna sausages? You have to bring your own, and there is a corking fee. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/24 "2008-10-27T16:54:09Z")
> [@sundog66](#): > > Because in Spanish, “-ería” is a suffix that attaches to a noun X to generate the meaning “place to buy X”. This suffix overwites any final vowel on the noun. “Shoe”, for example, is “zapato”, and so “shoe store” is “zapatería”. As for the c –\> qu spelling change, this is to preserve the ‘k’ sound. In Spanish orthography, the sequence “ce” would be pronounced roughly like “say”, so “tacería” would not do. “que” is the normal way of representing the sound sequence “kay”, hence “taquería”. porqueria? 🙂 (not your answer, of course, that was great) ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/25 "2008-10-27T17:27:56Z")
> [@Sapo](#): > > porqueria? 🙂 I’m going to have to try that one on my wife in the kitchen next time she makes pork. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/26 "2008-10-27T21:14:40Z")
Porquería is, indeed, “what pork (puerco) do”. Common origin. No coincidence. There are countless nouns and adjectives in Spanish for “pig” and they all have a “dirty” connotation. It used to be that they were considered dirty words and were just periodically replaced by another euphemism which then, in turn, became a dirty word. People would apologise for using the word and I believe it is Sancho who says “… puercos, sin perdón, que así se llaman…” because the custom was to say “puercos, con perdón…”. cerdo, puerco, cochino, marrano… all have the same connotation. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/27 "2008-10-27T21:43:29Z")
> [@sailor](#): > > cerdo, puerco, cochino, marrano… all have the same connotation. _Marrano_ is a new one to me, and a (very) quick search didn’t find it (just a bunch of converted Jews). Where’s it used for “pig”? And that’s just curiosity. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/28 "2008-10-27T21:59:25Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > _Marrano_ is a new one to me, and a (very) quick search didn’t find it (just a bunch of converted Jews). Where’s it used for “pig”? And that’s just curiosity. From the Arab, meaning “forbidden”. > [@](#): > > [http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/](http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/) > > marrano1, na. > > (Del ár. hisp. muḥarrám, y este del ár. clás. muḥarram, declarado anatema). > > 1. m. cerdo (mamífero artiodáctilo). ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/29 "2008-10-27T23:27:19Z")
Huevos is, of course, slang for balls (testes). So when talking about, or ordering, eggs some would call them blancas (or blancitas). Check my spelling, please. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/30 "2008-10-28T00:48:09Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > _Marrano_ is a new one to me, and a (very) quick search didn’t find it (just a bunch of converted Jews). Where’s it used for “pig”? And that’s just curiosity. I didn’t know of its Arab origins (which I found fascinating) but the word “marrano” was indeed very common in Venezuela and I think I have also heard it from Mexicans (in El Chavo, maybe?, gah, a new level of low in cites) Marrano, by the way, is very commonly used as a pejorative as it rhymes nicely with many nationalities. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/31 "2008-10-28T00:54:19Z")
A troll on another message board used the username Mayatesnomas, which I believe literally translates to “No more butterflies” but is Spanish slang for “Kill the fags” or something quite similar. Getting back to the point of the OP, Several Spanish vowels undergo diphthongization under certain circumstances, generally when not stressed or terminal: o to ue, e to ie, are the leading examples. So _venir_, “to come” becomes _viene_, “he/she/it comes” and _dormir_, “to dream,” becomes _duerme_, “he/she/it dreams.” Initial K and W sounds in Native American languages invoked the “qu” and consonantal “u” usage quite a bit – Quechua, the major indigenous language (or language family) of Peru and the Incan Empire, looks like it should be pronounced “Kweh-CHEW-a” but is actually “Kitch-wa”; one major Mayan ruin in the Yucatan is Uaxactun, the X being used to render Mayan /sh/ which is not a native phoneme in Spanish, the result being /Washaktun/, a near homonym of “Washington.” ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/32 "2008-10-28T00:56:55Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > I’m going to have to try that one on my wife in the kitchen next time she makes pork. 😃 Aren’t there better places to put pork than in her ear? ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/33 "2008-10-28T01:03:08Z")
> [@Sapo](#): > > I didn’t know of its Arab origins (which I found fascinating) but the word “marrano” was indeed very common in Venezuela and I think I have also heard it from Mexicans (in El Chavo, maybe?, gah, a new level of low in cites) > > Marrano, by the way, is very commonly used as a pejorative as it rhymes nicely with many nationalities. Treading carefully here: I seem to remember “marrano”, or a similar word, being exactly equivalent to “the n word”. It’s been a long time, though, since those days. ---
**Author:** ![sundog66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@sundog66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sundog66)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/34 "2008-10-28T01:12:36Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Getting back to the point of the OP, Several Spanish vowels undergo diphthongization under certain circumstances, generally when not stressed or terminal: o to ue, e to ie, are the leading examples. So _venir_, “to come” becomes _viene_, “he/she/it comes” and _dormir_, “to dream,” becomes _duerme_, “he/she/it dreams.” That’s true, but to be clear, nothing like that is going on in taco –\> taquería. There is no diphthongization. The /o/ disappears because the suffix “-ería” attaches directly to the stem of the noun “tac”, and c –\> qu is purely a matter of spelling. It does not reflect anything changing in the actual pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/35 "2008-10-28T01:17:54Z")
On the subject of tacos; I remember well eating fish tacos in the mid sixties, well before Rubio’s “invented” them. The owner does credit them to a cook in Mexico, but claims to have started selling them in San Diego in 1983. I had fish tacos in San Diego or Long Beach almost twenty years before that, for sure. I remember the smallish stand with a kinda large sign in the front advertising “fish tacos”. They were very close to what is now served at Rubios. My mouth is watering, so Rubio’s must be pretty good. (they are) ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/36 "2008-10-28T02:14:05Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Treading carefully here: > I seem to remember “marrano”, or a similar word, being exactly equivalent to “the n word”. It’s been a long time, though, since those days. hmmm. Not sure I have seen it used that way. As I said, it was often used as an insult against ethnics on the rhyme “puerco, marrano, cochino, xxx-ano”, with the last word being a nationality ending in “-ano” (colombiano, venezolano, italiano, etc). I could easily see it being used as a slur against blacks, but it wouldn’t have a special punch over, say, cochino, or puerco the way it does for nationalities. By the way, I love the way Puerto Ricans use “puerco” as an insult. The whole Dayanara vs Jennifer Lopez thing was comedy gold. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/37 "2008-10-28T03:14:14Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Huevos is, of course, slang for balls (testes). So when talking about, or ordering, eggs some would call them blancas (or blancitas). Check my spelling, please. 🙂 “Blanquitas” in the diminutive, for small eggs – same reason as “taqueria” 🙂 \*Blancitas would be pronounced “blahn-SEE-tahs” (or “blahn-THEE-tahs” in Castilla). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/38 "2008-10-28T09:32:02Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Treading carefully here: > I seem to remember “marrano”, or a similar word, being exactly equivalent to “the n word”. It’s been a long time, though, since those days. Jesus, no! It _was_ somewhat-equivalent to the n-word in the XVIth century, when it added to its basic meaning of “pig” that of “converted jew/muslim” (note that this would be insulting both as a form of racism and because someone who converts for economic reasons is a renegade). Nowadays linguists and history nerds are the only ones who know about that. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/39 "2008-10-28T11:45:24Z")
Okay, time for another lesson (to me): where is “blanquitas” used for eggs? I guess I’d use it just for the egg white, “yemo” for the yolk, but (in Mexican Spanish anyway), _juevos revueltos_ and _juevos divorciados_ and _omelet de tres juevos_ is so ingrained, I wonder if I’d confuse a hotel cook by asking for blanquitas? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586/40 "2008-10-28T12:45:00Z")
> [@Sapo](#): > > I didn’t know of its Arab origins (which I found fascinating) but the word “marrano” was indeed very common in Venezuela and I think I have also heard it from Mexicans (in El Chavo, maybe?, gah, a new level of low in cites) Hey! I learned to speak thanks to El Chavo. 😉 So of course my family was “WTF?” and laughing their asses off when I was using dated Mexican slang. And yea, I remember learning marrano there (where else, we don’t use it in PR). Add to the pig list the word “chancho”. Although mom tells me that in certain small towns it means something completely different… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-taqueria-not-tacoria/469586.md?page=3)