1605–15, construed as singular of Mexican Spanish tamales, plural of tamal < Nahuatl tamalli
The tamale is a popular food in Mexican cuisine, made of cornmeal dough that's filled with meat or cheese and wrapped in a cornhusk before being steamed. If you have the chance, you should definitely try some tamales. Traditionally, the cornhusk (or banana leaf) wrapper was used as a plate for eating the warm tamale, and these delicious savory treats are often still eaten this way today. The starchy masa (or cornmeal) that's used in tamales becomes firm after being steamed, and this makes it a perfect portable meal. The word tamale comes from the Mexican Spanish tamal, which has a Nahuatl root, tamalli, meaning "wrapped."
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Tamal Batabyal, a postdoctoral researcher at the Picower Institute, led the work, which was published Nov. 3 in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
From Science Daily • Nov. 4, 2025
Cherry sorbet sounds an altogether cooler dessert, and Tamal Ray’s recipe requires only about 20 minutes over a hot stove.
From The Guardian • Jul. 1, 2020
Tamal Ray: I spend my day working in the hospital.
From Washington Post • Apr. 13, 2020
As she cleaned okra leaves, Mrs. Tamal said she never gave Dounia entrails and pointed to a hole in the ground covered by a broken gourd.
From New York Times • Jun. 18, 2018
As for me," drawled Roger, "I'm going to find a stereo studio where they're showing a Liddy Tamal feature.
From Stand by for Mars! by Glanzman, Louis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
