tamale

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 [Term?].^[1] Compare O'odham čïmait (“tortilla”), Hopi tïma (“stone griddle for cooking corn flatbread”), Ute tïʔma- (“to roast under ashes”).^[1]

• enPR: tə-mä′lē^[1]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /təˈmɑː.liː/

  Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /təˈmɑ.li/

  (Canada) IPA^(key): /təˈmɒ.li/

• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /təˈmɐː.liː/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /təˈma.li/
• (India) IPA^(key): /ʈaˈmaː.liː/
• Rhymes: -ɑːli
• Homophone: tomalley
• Hyphenation: ta‧ma‧le^[1]

tamale (plural tamales)

2. A Mexican dish of cornmeal dough shell filled with various ingredients (e.g. chopped beef, pork, sweet filling) then steamed in corn husks.

   Synonyms: humita, tamal

   • 2023, Justin Torres, Blackouts, Granta Books (2024), pages 70-71:

     She would peel back the husk, ladle over the salsa verde, stab a plastic fork straight down into the heart of the masa, and hand the tamale over to me.

• The standard Spanish singular is tamal, and thus some proscribe tamale as an incorrect back-formation, preferring to use tamal as the English singular. The similarity of tamale to the ancestral Nahuatl tamalli is not generally cited in support of the English usage of tamale as its spelling does not match with the Nahuatl spelling and the word originally entered via Spanish in the form of tamales.

• “tamale”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• malate, meatal

• IPA^(key): /taˈmale/ [t̪aˈma.le]
• Rhymes: -ale
• Syllabification: ta‧ma‧le

tamale m (plural tamales)

2. (dialect) tamale (Mexican dish)