Tapioca Pudding
/ˌtæpiˈoʊkə ˈpʊdɪŋ/noun
A sweet dessert made by cooking tapioca pearls or starch with milk, sugar, and often flavorings.
Did you know?The word tapioca comes from Tupi, a major Indigenous language family of Brazil, describing the liquid or starch extracted by squeezing grated cassava root; pudding is a separate Germanic food word.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Columbian period
Old Tupi
tipi'óka
“The juice or starch extracted by pressing cassava; commonly analyzed as referring to squeezed or pressed cassava liquid.”
16th Century
Portuguese
tapioca
“Cassava starch or a preparation made from it, borrowed from Indigenous Brazilian usage.”
14th Century
Middle English
poding
“A boiled or steamed food, especially a sausage-like preparation enclosed in a casing.”
Old English period
Old English
puduc
“A swelling or lump; often considered an early relative of the later word pudding.”
17th–18th Century
English
pudding
“A boiled or steamed dish, later increasingly used for sweet dessert preparations.”
19th Century
English
tapioca pudding
“A sweet milk-based dessert thickened with tapioca, popularized in English-speaking cookery.”
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