[Sca-cooks] Mantequilla and Manteca

[Susan Fox-Davis]

It seems to me to be a plain case of a diminutive, essentially unchanged 
from the Latin.  Manta is a big covering, mantilla a little one. 
 Manteca, lard is the main source of fat from a beast;  mantequilla is a 
lesser one, or at least there is less of it available at one time.  Over 
the lifetime of a cow, however, this is not necessarily the case;  over 
the lifetime of a bull on the other hand, it certainly IS.

Best, Selene

Elise Fleming wrote:

>Greetings.  I've sent a post to a Spanish resource center at Ohio State
>University to ask about the entymology of mantequilla.  As I was typing, I
>got to thinking that if one adds the "illa" ending to "manteca", one ends
>up with "mantequilla".  (The C has to change to a Q to retain the hard
>sound.)  "-illa" is one of the suffixes used to change a word (manta -
>blanket to mantilla - lace headcovering in Seville)  I'll let you all know
>if I hear back from the department.
>
>Alys Katharine
>
>Elise Fleming
>alysk at ix.netcom.com
>http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/
>