Originally Posted by jmoney7269
From what I understand the word barbeque is the result of merging of 3 nouns. Bar, beer, and Que. Started obviously in a bar with guys playing pool drinking cold beer. Cooking food over wood coals is medieval but they just came up with a cooler name.
I've heard that too, but it turns out the word is MUCH older than that. From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
barbecue (n.) 1650s, "framework for grilling meat, fish, etc.," from American Spanish barbacoa, from Arawakan (Haiti) barbakoa "framework of sticks," the raised wooden structure the Indians used to either sleep on or cure meat. Sense of "outdoor meal of roasted meat or fish as a social entertainment" is from 1733; modern popular noun sense of "grill for cooking over an open fire" is from 1931.