What is "olla"

Olla \Ol"la\, n. [See Olio.]

1. A pot or jar having a wide mouth; a cinerary urn, especially one of baked clay.

2. A dish of stewed meat; an olio; an olla-podrida.

n. 1 a cooking-pot or earthenware jar used in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries 2 A pot used for cooling water by evaporation in Latin America. 3 A cinerary urn in ancient Rome.

n. leaf or strip from a leaf of the talipot palm used in India for writing paper [syn: ola]

An olla is a ceramic jar, often unglazed, used for cooking stews or soups, for the storage of water or dry foods, or for other purposes. Ollas have a short wide neck and a wider belly, resembling beanpots or handis.

In ancient Roman culture, the olla (archaic Latin: aula or aulla; Greek: , chytra) is a squat, rounded pot or jar. An olla would be used primarily to cook or store food, hence the word “ olla" is still used in some Romance languages for either a cooking pot or a dish in the sense of cuisine. In the typology of ancient Roman pottery, the olla is a vessel distinguished by its rounded “belly,” typically with no or small handles or at times with volutes at the lip, and made within a Roman sphere of influence; the term olla may also be used for Etruscan and Gallic examples, or Greek pottery found in an Italian setting.

In ancient Roman religion, ollae (plural) have ritual use and significance, including as cinerary urns. In the study of Gallo-Roman art and culture, an olla is the small pot carried by Sucellus, by the mallet god often identified with him, or by other gods.

Olla is a genus of fungi within the Hyaloscyphaceae family. The genus contains 12 species.