taco

peg (a short, thick piece of wood, metal, or other material); dowel (a longer piece of wood, plastic, or other material); stopper, plug, wad (small bundle of material made to cover, stop, or fill a hole); heel (of a shoe); traffic jam

“Empezó a soltar tacos.” — He started swearing.

Uncertain, probably borrowed from Italian tacco; ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *takkō (“twig, branch, shoot”).

taco

Uncertain. One theory is that the original tacos were rolled (like what are now known as taquitos) and resembled the rolled-up explosive charges used in mines (tacos de minero), making it the same word as taco (“plug, wad”) above. Another theory is that it derives from Nahuatl tlahco (middle, center, half), referring to the placement of the filling; tortillas, though not tacos, are known to be pre-Columbian.