Etymology

kikiam

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Today it means: steamed and pan-fried elongated beancurd rolls over meatloaves of meat (usually ground pork) and vegetables, served as streetfood snack or dish topping Full definition →

Tagalog kikiam ← Spanish que-quian
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The story

  1. Spanish · borrowed fromque-quian
  2. Tagalog · borrowed fromkikiam
  3. English todaykikiam

From Tagalog kikiam or Spanish que-quian, from Hokkien, possibly 雞 /鸡 (ke, “chicken”) + 繭 /茧 (kián, “cocoon”) or 鹹 /咸 (kiâm, “viand; rice topping”). See also kiampong, tawkiam, Hokkien 鹹飯 /咸饭 (kiâm-pn̄g) and Taiwanese Hokkien 雞卷 /鸡卷 (koe-kńg), 肉繭 /肉茧, 肉繭仔 /肉茧仔, 繭仔 /茧仔, Cebuano ngohiong, Cebuano tempura, Singaporean and Malaysian English ngoh hiang. Manuel (1948) also notes that the first syllable implies "chicken", but the chief ingredient more often used these days is now pork.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.