paella (Spanish)

Where does "paella" come from?

Spanish paella was borrowed from Catalan paella, originally meaning a frying pan, and that Catalan word goes back to Latin patella, a small shallow pan or dish. Along the way, the sense stayed tied to the cooking vessel, and in Spanish it became the name of the famous rice dish made in that pan. It is also a doublet of Spanish padilla, paila, and puela, which come from the same Latin source by different historical paths.

Full etymology tree

• paella (Spanish), 'paella'
  • borrowed from paella (Catalan), 'frying pan'
    • inherited from paelle (Old French)
      • inherited from patella (Latin), 'a small or shallow pan or dish'
        • affix patina (Latin), 'A broad, shallow dish, a pan, stewpan.'
          • borrowed from πατάνη (Ancient Greek), 'kind of flat dish'
        • affix patera (Latin), 'A broad, flat dish, saucer, bowl, or vessel, used especially for libations during a religious rite or sacrifice'
          • derived from pateō (Latin), 'to be open, accessible, attainable'
        • suffix -la (Latin), 'inflection of -lus:'
          • inherited from *-elos (Proto-Italic), 'Forms desubstantival and deadjectival diminutive nouns'
            • inherited from *-elós (Proto-Indo-European)
              • derived from *-lós (Proto-Indo-European), 'Forms agent nouns from verbal roots.'

Ancestors

• paella (Catalan)
• patella (Latin)

Cognates and doublets

• padilla (Spanish)
• paila (Spanish)
• puela (Spanish)

Descendants and derived words

• paelya (Tagalog)

Updated March 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris