Also 8 tassajo, 9 tassago. [Sp. tasajo a slice of dried meat, in Pg. tasalho; cf. Cat. tasco. Of uncertain origin: see Diez 490.] Buffalo meat cut into strips and dried in the sun.
[1760–72. trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy. (ed. 3), II. 244. The flesh after having been cut into thin slices, is salted, and this is what they call Tassagear.]
1783. Justamond, trans. Raynal’s Hist. Indies, V. 365. The inhabitants [of Trinidad] shoot them [wild cattle], and cut their flesh into slips … which they dry…. This provision, which is called Tassajo, is sold in the French settlements.
1851. Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., xxvi. Those who remain cut the [buffalo] meat into long thin strips, and hang it over the lines already prepared for this purpose. It is thus left to be baked by the sun into ‘tasajo.’
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Tasajo, a name in New Granada for dried meat; hung beef.
1891. Cent. Dict., Tassago.
