Spanish dish of rice with chicken and other meat, seafood, vegetables, etc., cooked together in a large, flat pan, 1892, from Catalan paella, from Old French paele "cooking or frying pan" (Modern French poêle), from Latin patella "small pan, little dish, platter," diminutive of patina "broad shallow pan, stew-pan" (see pan (n.)). So called for the pan in which it is cooked.
