The Word “Quesadilla” Doesn’t Come from Nahuatl

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, Grant. This is Travis. I’m calling from Orlando, Florida.

Hi, Travis in Orlando. Welcome to the show.

What’s going on, Travis?

I knew you were the ones to turn to after. Short story. I went to Mexico City on a tourist adventure.

We went to a culinary street tour of food and we went to a chef where we learned it was a cooking class.

And taught by this chef who taught us all these wonderful things about Mexican cuisine.

And in the process told us something that blew everyone’s mind.

Of course, she said, does everybody know where the term quesadilla comes from?

And everybody’s like, of course, the Spanish word for cheese, queso and tortilla, right?

She said, no, it comes from, I believe it was an ancient Mexican language,

Nacho or something it doesn’t come from peso and tortilla and and we were just like oh my goodness.

I can’t wait to go back and blow all my friends minds at home too and that was the thing to

Remember from the rest of the trip on the flight back I just did a quick google and got an inkling

That that actually may have been some sort of fake story and maybe did this chef get the wool

Pulled over her eyes as, well, what’s right here? I know who to call.

Travis, you’re right to be suspicious. There is, in fact, a meme that’s circulating

On the web that has the supposed etymology of quesadilla. You know, it’s kind of a shame

Because there are so many wonderful examples of food words that do derive from Nahuatl,

Like chili and chipotle and avocado and chocolate and cocoa and what else, Grant? Tomato, tamales.

Yeah, all the food words, of course.

Yeah, all these wonderful food words. And maybe you talked about that in your cooking class.

Well, this word that’s been floating around, I think it’s quetzaditzen or something like that.

Quetzaditzen does not appear to be Nahuatl.

And when I saw this floating around a few weeks ago, I decided to reach out to a friend of ours, Dr. John Schwaller, who is executive director of the Association of Nahuatl Scholars.

So if anybody would know, I figure he would.

And he pointed out several reasons why this Ketsaditsin is probably not the origin.

For one thing, there’s no letter D in that language.

And also, in the 15th century in Spain, we see these sweet cheesecakes that are called quesadas.

And quesadilla was a kind of cheese empanada that has a name that literally translates as a little thing made with cheese.

And the best Spanish etymological dictionaries out there don’t attribute it to Nahuatl.

In fact, a little interesting sidebar is the fact that there was no cheese used by Nahuatl speakers originally because they had no domesticated animals that could be milked.

They had dogs, but no animals that could provide milk for cheese like sheep or cows or goats.

Apparently, there’s an old word in Nahuatl that just means folded tortillas, and it doesn’t sound anything like quesadilla.

But all of that said, you may have found in Mexico City that if you’re ordering a quesadilla and you want cheese in it, you have to specify, I want cheese in it.

Right, Grant?

Did you have that experience?

Yeah, same experience.

I went to Mexico City with my family, and I had some very good quesadillas with picadillo, but there was no cheese in there.

Right. You have to ask for it if you want.

And that was a fact that did blow my mind, but was, in fact, true as we witnessed and saw as we walked around.

So, very cool.

Let’s clarify one thing here.

That I-ya suffix isn’t from tortilla.

In fact, tortilla and quesadilla share that suffix, which means little.

It’s a diminutive.

Okay.

So it’s queso plus that suffix, not queso plus part of the word tortilla.

Okay, okay.

This has been an honor to learn about this and get to the bottom of it finally.

Thank you so much for sharing your food adventure with us and call us again sometime.

Please do.

Oh, yes, I definitely will.

Thank you so much for everything you do.

All right, bye-bye.

Bye, Travis.

Okay, bye-bye.

Food and language, a perfect marriage, and Martha and I would love to go to that wedding.

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