Salt-cured or dried cod fish, a staple food in Portuguese, Spanish, and Latin American cuisine.
From Portuguese 'bacalhaus' or Spanish 'bacalao,' ultimately derived from Old Norse 'baccalao' or possibly Basque origin. The word traveled through Mediterranean trade routes as the fish trade expanded.
Bacalao created world empires! The Portuguese became obsessed with cod fishing in the North Atlantic that it literally funded their Age of Exploration—one fish shaped global history and colonialism.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.