barbecue
UK[ˈbɑːbɪkjuː]US[ˈbɑːrbɪkjuː]
n
A meal or gathering at which food is cooked and eaten outdoors on a grill over an open fire.
n
A grill or fireplace used for cooking food outdoors.
v
To cook food on a grill over an open fire, especially outdoors.
Etymology
The word 'barbecue' entered English in the mid-17th century from Spanish 'barbacoa', which itself was borrowed from the Arawakan language of the Taíno people of the Caribbean. In Taíno, 'barbacoa' referred to a framework of sticks set upon posts, used for sleeping, storing items, or curing meat over a fire. Spanish explorers encountered this method of slow-cooking meat over an indirect flame and adopted the term. English then borrowed the word, and its meaning narrowed specifically to the method of cooking and the social event surrounding it, while the original sense of a raised wooden framework faded. This journey from a specific indigenous term for a structure to a globally recognized culinary and social concept exemplifies how language evolves through cultural contact.
Analysis
This word is a loanword adopted as a single unit from another language. Its internal morphemes are not productively separable in modern English spelling or meaning.
Examples
We're planning a big barbecue for the Fourth of July.
He grilled chicken and sausages on the barbecue.
Let's barbecue some vegetables with the steak.