Tex-Mex

[ teks-meks ]

adjective

1. of or relating to aspects of culture that combine Mexican and Texan or southwestern U.S. features, especially aspects of culture developed in southern Texas based on or influenced by Mexican elements:

   Tex-Mex cooking; Tex-Mex music.

noun

1. a form of Mexican Spanish having elements of English and spoken near the border of Texas and Mexico, especially Mexican Spanish as spoken in Texas.
2. Music. norteño.

Tex-Mex

/ ˈtɛksˌmɛks /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or denoting the Texan version of something Mexican, such as music, food, or language

Word History and Origins

Origin of Tex-Mex¹

An Americanism dating back to 1945–50; by shortening

Example Sentences

Founded in Dallas, Texas, in 1975, it helped introduce the world outside of Texas to the compelling flavor profiles of Tex-Mex cuisine, and opened restaurants in far-flung locales like Morocco and Costa Rica.

From Eater

Those are fighting words in a nearly half-Latino city where Tex-Mex restaurants outnumber all others.

From The Daily Beast

In fact, quite the opposite—I suspect that my own experience epitomizes, in miniature, the Tex-Mex revival as a whole.

From The Daily Beast

The former accused him of cooking inauthentic Mexican food; the latter accused him of cooking inauthentic Tex-Mex.

From The Daily Beast

Texas expats wax rhapsodic about the Tex-Mex food of their youth.

From The Daily Beast

“With Bar Ama, what I wanted to do, conceptually, was to take the ideas around Tex-Mex and make them my own,” he said.

From The Daily Beast