Also tomally, taumally, tomalline. [According to J. Davies, 1666, a Carib word (see quot.); in F. taumalin, (Littré).] The fat or ‘liver’ of the North American lobster, which becomes green when cooked, and is then known as tomalley sauce.
1666. J. Davies, Hist. Caribby Islands, II. xvi. 300. They call the inner part of the Crab Taumaly. Ibid., Carrib. Vocab., Zz iv/1. Sauce, Taomali, or Taumali.
1864. Webster, Tom-alley, the liver of the lobster, which becomes green when boiled; called also tom-alline.
1882. Ogilvie, Tomalley, Tomalline.
¶ erron. A Spanish-American dish made of crushed Indian corn, etc.; properly TAMAL.
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Anncr., Tamal, or Tamauli, a peculiar Spanish-American dish made up of a paste of crushed or ground maize, sometimes with minced meat added, when it is wrapped in the husks of maize and baked on the coals.
c. 1900. C. W. Greene, Lett. to Editor. When I was a youngster in Massachusetts, we called the gelatinous part of a baked maize pudding, the tom-alley. It somewhat resembles in appearance the tom-alley of the lobster; but in meaning it comes very near the Mexican, Cuban, and Southern U.S. use of tamauli or tamalli as the name of a kind of maize pudding.
