People have been wrapping food in corn tortillas in Mexico for a very long time. The word taco, however, is surprisingly young, and the leading theory about where it came from involves explosives.
A plug, a wad, a charge
In Spanish, taco has long meant a plug, wad or stopper, the kind of thing you jam into a hole. It is also a billiard cue and, in some places, a heel on a shoe. The food sense is a Mexican development.
The mining theory
Historian Jeffrey M. Pilcher, author of Planet Taco, points to the silver mines of 18th-century Mexico. There, workers used “tacos”: charges of gunpowder wrapped in paper and packed into holes drilled in rock. A rolled tortilla stuffed with filling looks remarkably similar. One of the early named varieties was tacos de minero, “miner’s tacos.” Bonus: a good salsa still produces a small explosion.
What about Nahuatl?
You will sometimes read that taco comes from the Nahuatl word tlahco, meaning “half” or “middle.” It is a fun idea, but most linguists consider it unlikely; the Spanish meaning fits the evidence better.
A rough timeline
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Thousands of years ago | Mesoamericans develop nixtamalized corn and tortillas |
| 1700s | Silver miners in Mexico call paper-wrapped gunpowder charges “tacos” |
| Late 1800s | The food sense of “taco” starts appearing in Mexican writing, including in Manuel Payno’s novel Los bandidos de Río Frío |
| Early 1900s | Migrants carry tacos to Mexico City and the word shows up in U.S. newspapers |
| Mid-1900s | Pre-formed hard shells and Tex-Mex chains spread tacos across the U.S. |
| Today | Tacos are everywhere, and every day is technically Taco Tuesday somewhere |
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