orxata

English edit

Noun edit

orxata (countable and uncountable, plural orxatas)

Alternative form of horchata
- 2016, Lancelot Larsen, Sons of America, volume 1:
  When we sat to eat steak burritos with orxatas, I was irritated by the only other diners alongside us, a gang of four late-middle-aged white female laughter geeks from Texas.

Catalan edit

Etymology edit

From Vulgar Latin *hordeāta, itself derived from Latin hordeum (“barley”). How the word entered Catalan is disputed. Some see it as originating in the Valencian dialect (and making its way into Spanish (horchata) possibly via a Mozarabic source), but the word was only attested in Catalan around the 17th or 18th century, which makes this problematic. An alternatively etymology has the Catalan word borrowed from the Spanish horchata, itself perhaps taken from the Italian orzata (“barley water”).^[1]