Origin of the term Barbecue

There are two theories on the origin of the word Barbecue:

• The first refers to the first Spanish explorers who arrived in Central America with the three Caravels and Christopher Columbus (precisely in the Caribbean) where Indian tribes used this method of cooking to preserve the meat longer. These tribes placed the meat neatly on a wooden trellis that kept the meat away from the fire and the smoke smoked it keeping insects away. In these tribes people slept on the same grates called “barbecoa”; Back in Europe, the Spaniards spread this type of cooking calling it BERBEQUE, thus indicating an outdoor social gathering.
• The second version of the origin of the name BBQ is French who, like the Spaniards, during the conquest of the New World, ate whole goats there "de la barbe alle queue" (from beard to tail) hence "barbecue".