外刊阅读

Barbeque or Barbecue: Which Is Correct?

Being *grilled* over the way you spell this word? Find out if there's a correct way to spell the word for this tasty cooking style.

你是否因为拼写这个单词而遭受了“拷”问？看看这种美味的烹饪方式是否有正确的拼写方式吧。

It's become an American pastime, a staple of summer holidays and restaurants around the country. It can be a verb, a noun, or even an adjective. There are probably way more surprising foods you can grill than you thought. It might make your mouth water just thinking about it. And yet…are you spelling it right?

它已经成为美国人的一种消遣方式，是全国各地夏季假日和餐馆的主打产品。它可以是动词、名词，甚至形容词。你可以烤的食物可能比你想象的要多得多。光是想想就会流口水。但是……你拼对了吗？

“Barbecue” and “barbeque,” only one letter off, are used interchangeably to describe a type of cooking and the food that is cooked that way. And, of course, the longer words are often abbreviated just to “BBQ.” Is any of those spellings more right—or wrong—than others? And which came first, “barbeque” or “barbecue”?

“Barbecue”和“barbeque”只差一个字母，可以互换使用来描述一种烹饪方式和以这种方式烹饪的食物。当然，这两个较长的词通常被缩写为“BBQ”。这些拼法中有没有哪个比其他拼写更正确或更错误呢？“barbeque”和“barbecue”哪个先出现的？

The first word to describe this familiar food preparation process, and the one that the modern versions come from, is the Spanish “barbacoa.” This word dates back to the mid- to late 1600s, when Spanish colonists used it to describe the cooking style of the Taíno people, indigenous to South America and the Caribbean. It described their method of cooking meat over a fire. And the word “barbacoa” is still used today to describe a method of slow-cooking food over a fire, usually Mexican food.

第一个描述这种熟悉的食品制作过程的单词，是西班牙语“barbacoa”，这个词也是现代版本的来源。这个词可以追溯到17世纪中后期，当时西班牙殖民者用它来描述南美洲和加勒比海土著泰诺人（Taíno）的烹饪方式。这个词描述了他们在火上烹饪肉类的方法。“barbacoa”这个词今天仍然用于描述一种在火上缓慢烹饪食物的方法，通常是墨西哥食物。

So it certainly would seem like “barbecue” is the correct form, since it originated from the word “barbacoa,” with a C and not a Q. But…the popular abbreviation is “BBQ,” so why does the word itself have a Q?!

因此，“barbecue”似乎是正确的形式，因为它源自“barbacoa”，拼写中带有C而不是Q。但是，普遍的缩写是“BBQ”，那么为什么这个单词本身却带有Q呢？

Which is correct, “barbeque” or “barbecue”?

Barbeque和barbecue，哪一个才是正确的？

Well, there's no simple answer. Spellings evolved, as spellings do, and in the early days of America, there were a few different spellings, including ones you won't see today: “barbacue,” “borbecue,” and more variations. According to Southern Living, George Washington himself spelled it “barbicue.” But “barbecue” and “barbeque” eventually surfaced as the most popular spellings (with the former more prevalent).

嗯，其实没有标准答案。其拼写方式随着时间的推移而不断演变，在美国早期，有几种不同的拼法，包括如今看不到的拼法：“barbacue”、“borbecue”等变体。据《南方生活》（Southern Living）报道，乔治·华盛顿（George Washington）本人把它拼写为“barbicue”。但是“barbecue”和“barbeque”最终成为最流行的拼写（前者更普遍）。

While “barbecue” comes from Spanish, the “barbeque” spelling reportedly came to be thanks to the French phrase barbe à queue, which means “whiskers to tail” and describes the process of roasting an entire pig. (“BBQ” is the abbreviation because the word is pronounced “bahr-bi-kyoo,” not because “barbeque” is the actual spelling.)

虽然“barbecue”一词来自西班牙语，但据说，“barbeque”的拼写源于法语短语“barbe à queue”，意思是“从胡须到尾巴”，描述的是烤制整只猪的过程。（“BBQ”是缩写，因为这个词的发音是“bahr-bi-kyoo”，而不是因为“barbeque”是实际拼写。）

As for which is correct, “barbeque” or “barbecue”? Well, it depends on who you ask. http://Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster both list “barbecue” as the standard spelling, but both sites also list “barbeque” as a variant. (Merriam-Webster calls it “less common.”) http://Dictionary.com even lists “bar-b-que” as an option as well. So, no, whichever you prefer to use, you're not incorrect, and they have the same meaning.

至于“barbeque”和“barbecue”哪个正确？这取决于你问谁。http://Dictionary.com和韦氏词典（Merriam-Webster）都把“barbecue”列为标准拼写，但这两个网站也把“barbeque”列为变体。（韦氏词典称该词“不太常见”。）http://Dictionary.com甚至把“bar-b-que”也列为一种拼法。因此，无论你偏好哪种拼法，你都没有错，它们的含义相同。