From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
Also barbeque. A method of cooking in which meat or other foods are cooked outdoors over an open fire (either charcoal or some other fuel, such as propane or natural gas). The word can also be used for the appliance on which such cooking is done and for an informal meal at which food cooked in this way is served. The word comes from the Spanish barbacoa, meaning "a framework of sticks."
