empanada

[em-puh-nah-duh; Spanish em-pah-nah-th ah]

noun Latin-American Cookery.

a turnover or mold of pastry filled with chopped or ground meat, vegetables, fruit, etc., and usually baked or fried.

Origin of empanada

1920–25; < American Spanish, equivalent to em- em-¹ + pan bread +-ada, feminine of -ado -ate¹

1939, American English, from Spanish empanada, past participle adjective (fem.) of empanar "to roll and fry."