What Cochinita pibil means
Cochinita pibil is a Mexican main dish name of Maya origin meaning "little pig cooked in a pit oven". It comes from Spanish cochinita (little pig) + Yucatec Maya píib (earth oven) + -il. It is pronounced koh-chee-NEE-tah pee-BEEL, and it is most associated with Yucatán.
píib is the pit oven itself and pibil marks anything cooked in it. The technique is pre-Hispanic, first used for deer and game birds; the pig arrived with the Spanish.
Cochinita pibil is one of the many Mexican food words formed in Maya. Spanish borrowed it, and in several cases English borrowed it again from Spanish. See how Nahuatl builds words and the full list of Mexican food names.
This is a site about what Mexican words mean, so there is no recipe here. For the name itself: The plated dishes, most named for a cooking method or a place. Cochinita pibil is pork cooked in a píib, the Maya earth oven. Barbacoa gave English the word barbecue. Chiles en nogada is named for the walnut sauce that covers it.
