Dear Geist, How do you spell the word barbecue? I did what I thought would be a quick check online and now I'm up to five different versions: barbecue, barbeque, BBQ, bar-b-cue and bar-b-que. Which one do you guys like? —Grilling in Guelph, ON Dear Grilling, All of those spellings are acceptable one way or another. The Oxford English Dictionary and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary prefer barbecue and accept barbeque, and don't mention the others. Garner's Modern American Usage acknowledges BBQ, bar-b-cue and bar-b-que, but prefers barbecue and barbeque, so presumably those other three are mainly American variants. Of the five spellings, barbecue is the one closest to the Spanish term—barbacoa—that we took it from. A barbacoa is a wooden frame on posts that holds meat over a cooking fire. Originally, though, a barbacoa was a framework for sleeping, or for drying meat or fish. Long story short, you're fine with barbecue or barbeque if your text is meant for North American readers of English. —The Editors
