Forms: 7 barbecu, 7–8 borbecu, 8 barbicue, 7–9 barbacue, 8– barbecue, (9 babracot). [ad. Sp. barbacoa, a. Haitian barbacòa (E. B. Tylor) ‘a framework of sticks set upon posts’; evidently the same as the babracot (? a French spelling) of the Indians of Guiana, mentioned by Im Thurn. (The alleged Fr. barbe à queue ‘beard to tail,’ is an absurd conjecture suggested merely by the sound of the word.)]
1. A rude wooden framework, used in America for sleeping on, and for supporting above a fire meat that is to be smoked or dried.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1699), I. 20. And lay there all night, upon our Borbecu’s, or frames of Sticks, raised about 3 foot from the Ground. Ibid., I. 86. His Couch or Barbecu of Sticks.
1879. Boddam-Whetham, Roraima, xiv. 155. For preservation, a barbecue is erected, and the fish are smoked over a fire.
1883. Im Thurn, Indians of Guiana, ii. 47. Fires, above which were babracots loaded with beef, burned. Ibid., xi. 248. A babracot is a stage of green sticks, built over a fire, on which the meat is laid.
2. An iron frame for broiling very large joints.
1736. Bailey, Houshold Dict., 347. When the belly side is … steady upon the gridiron or barbecue, pour into the belly of the hog, etc.
3. A hog, ox, or other animal broiled or roasted whole; see also quot. 1861, and BARBECUE v. 2.
1764. Foote, Patron, I. i. (1774), 6. I am invited to dinner on a barbicu.
1825. Schuylkill Fishing Co., in Bibliographer, Dec. (1881), 25/1. A fine barbacue with spiced sauce.
1861. Tylor, Anahuac, iv. 95. A kid that had been cooked in a hole in the ground, with embers upon it…. This is called a ‘barbacoa’—a barbecue.
4. (in U.S.) A large social entertainment, usually in the open air, at which animals are roasted whole, and other provisions liberally supplied.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., IV. ix. (1849), 240. Engaged in a great ‘barbecue,’ a kind of festivity or carouse much practised in Merryland.
1884. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 27 Oct., 2/3. At the Brooklyn barbecue, which Governor Cleveland recently attended, 5000 kegs of beer were dispensed.
5. An open floor on which coffee-beans, etc., may be spread out to dry.
1855. Kingsley, Westw. Ho! xix. (D.). The barbecu or terrace of white plaster, which ran all round the front.
1883. Cassell’s Mag., Aug., 528/1. The [coffee-]beans … are carried to the ‘barbacue,’ an open space paved with cement or asphalte, where they are spread on matting … to dry.
1885. Lady Brassey, In Trades, 235. A barbecue is the name given, in Jamaica, to the house which contains the threshing-floor and apparatus for drying the coffee.
