mortero

Spanish

A mid-20th century infantry mortar.

A mortar, mortar and pestle or pestle and mortar.

Three bricks held together with mortar.

Etymology

Inherited from Latin mortārium. Cognate with English mortar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /moɾˈteɾo/ [moɾˈt̪e.ɾo]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɾo
• Syllabification: mor‧te‧ro

Noun

mortero m (plural morteros)

1. (military) mortar (a relatively lightweight, often portable indirect fire weapon which transmits recoil to a base plate and is designed to lob explosive shells at very steep trajectories)
2. (food) mortar, mortar and pestle, pestle and mortar (a hollow vessel used to pound, crush, rub, grind or mix ingredients with a pestle)
3. mortar (a mixture of lime or cement, sand and water used for bonding building blocks)

Derived terms

• mano de mortero (“pestle”)
• morterada
• morterazo
• mortero de cal

 

See also

• molcajete m
• pilón m

Further reading

• “mortero”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28