bacalao

Borrowed from Spanish bacalao.

bacalao (uncountable)

1. Alternative spelling of bacalhau.
   • 2003 September 5, A. LaBan, “Rooms With a View”, in Chicago Reader‎^[1]:

     House specialties also include a spicy, salty bacalao, pollack stew in a red or white sauce […] .

• bacallao
• bacalado (nonstandard, hypercorrect)

From Dutch bakkeljauw, kabeljauw, from Old Dutch *cabillao, of uncertain origin. Possibly from Latin baculum (“stick, staff”), referring to the way cod were split and dried on wooden sticks. Or, possibly borrowed or influenced by Basque bakailao, which could be related to the Dutch word.

Cognate with Italian baccalà, Portuguese bacalhau, Galician bacallau, Catalan bacallà.

• IPA^(key): /bakaˈlao/ [ba.kaˈla.o]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ao
• Syllabification: ba‧ca‧la‧o

bacalao m (plural bacalaos)

1. cod
2. dried and salted cod

• Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN

• “bacalao”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024