tabasco · noun1
See Tabasco.
Tabasco · proper noun, noun2
Of unclear origin. The first definition listed in the 1994 Diccionario enciclopédico de Tabasco was from the Nahuatl name of the area, tlapalco meaning "(place of) damp earth"; wetlands are still extensive in the Mexican state of Tabasco. Other opinions listed were Mayan word tab-uaxac-koh, meaning "(our) lord of eight lions"; others suggest it derives from a Nahuatl word: tla-uashka-ko meaning "place that has an owner", or tlapachtli. The tabasco pepper was popular in the Mexican state and is named for it; a hot sauce made from that pepper was eaten in the state since the 1650s, and a version was popularized in the United States and elsewhere by the McIlhenny Company of Avery Island, Louisiana, beginning in the 1870s.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.