Sopapilla

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A light and airy pastry from Latin America that is fried and often enjoyed as a dessert with various sweet toppings like honey or sugar
2. This dessert is a deep-fried dough treat commonly found in Latin American cuisine, typically enjoyed warm with sweet condiments
3. A type of fried pastry originating from Latin America that is typically served as a sweet treat and often dusted with sugar or drizzled with honey

Etymology: A little sopaipa, the word for a piece of fried bread, gives this dessert its name. Spanish adds the diminutive ending "-illa", which descends from Latin "-ella", so "sopaipilla" means roughly "little sopaipa." The first part is related to "sopa", Spanish for soup, which points to the bread's origin as something soaked or dipped. English borrowed the Spanish form directly, so the name stayed Spanish rather than being translated. "Sopapilla" is a common misspelling of the standard form.