The OED (1933 ed.) has a long definition of barbecue, which includes the
etymology of the word and its earliest known use, as follows::

Barbecue (ba rbi kiu), sb. Forms: 7 barbecu, 7-8 borbecu, 8
barbicue, 7 9 barbacue, 8- barbecue, (9 babracot). [ad. Sp.
barbacoa, a. Haitian barbacoa (E. B. Taylor) 'a framework of
sticks set upon posts'; evidently the same as the babracot
(?a French spelling) of the Indians of Guiana, mentioned by Im
Thurn. (The alleged Fr. barbe a queue 'beard to tail,' is an
absurd conjecture suggested merely by the sound of the
word.)]