Where does the word chocolate come from?

Have you ever wondered where the word chocolate comes from? The name of this product has a long history that you will see below.

When the Conquerors Spaniards arrived in the American continent, they found a large number of plants, animals and natural and cultural products unknown to them before, and obviously, it was necessary to name them. These names were usually taken from the languages spoken by the inhabitants of those areas.

Woman mouth biting chocolate.

Thus, a considerable number of words from the indigenous languages of the American continent passed to Spanish and, through Spanish, many times to other European languages.

The Spanish conquerors knew the chocolate (more precisely, the cocoa ) through the Aztecs , Who, in turn, learned the secrets of their elaboration of the ancient Mayan civilization , Who received it from the Olmecs .

The three villages consumed it in the form of a drink. The pre-Columbian inhabitants of Mexico prepared xocolatl ("xocol": bitter and"atl": water) of the cacahuatl (cacao) by adding cold water and mixing vigorously.

The liquid was then poured into a vessel creating the foam, which was considered the most refined feature of all sensory experience.

Christopher Columbus Took Europe cocoa almonds as a curiosity, but it was Hernán Cortés who first realized his possible commercial value. Spain was the first European country that used and marketed cacao, having monopolized it for many years.

You may also be interested in knowing the advantages of consuming this food. If so, you can see 14 excellent benefits of dark chocolate to health.

Origin of the word chocolate

Where does the word chocolate come from? Source of the image:"Course on the cultivation of cacao"by Gustavo A. Enríquez, page 7.

From Amerindian to Spanish

It is known that the chocolate comes from the American continent, and that word was not known in Europe before the discovery of the Spanish empire. The main Amerindian languages that contributed lexical elements to Spanish are the following:

Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec empire . From this language, words like chocolate, such as tomato, avocado, peanut (Mexico peanut), chewing gum, coyote, ocelot, zopilote, tamal, and many others have been passed into Spanish.
Quechua, the language of the Inca empire . From Quechua, words such as vicuña, guanaco, condor, puma, potato, potato, mate, pampa, etc. come from.

Of these two languages, Nahuatl is more present in Spanish, since it was the most widespread language of the Aztec empire, which included Mexico And much of Central America and was used as a general language throughout the empire.

Chronology of the word chocolate

The Indians who inhabited the American continent used cocoa as food and beverage ingredients, as well as seeds as coins. Cocoa in Spain also occupied the role of food and currency, but the word chocolate began to dominate in the semantic world related to food and beverages.

At the end of the 16th century until the middle of the 17th century, the word chocolate is seen in popular works of Europe, but not yet a word commonly used. Before that it was continued using the Nahuatl language to define many kinds of drink that were made with the cacao.

During the end of the seventeenth century and until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the word chocolate began to be occupied by Europeans for various foods and drinks. The word chocolate appears in the dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy only in 1590 according to the book"Natural and moral history of the Indies"by José de Acosta.

This word is a lexical indigenismo incorporated into Spanish by the need to name the unknown elements of the new continent (the American continent). The indigenismos are the voices that come from the pre-Columbian languages that arrived at the Spanish after an adaptation to the language.

The current usage and meaning of the word chocolate

Where does the word chocolate come from? 1

Although there is more certainty of the origin of the word cocoa, it is not so much with the word chocolate. This word has many hypotheses and some very different from each other.

The only fact that coincides with all theories, hypotheses and assumptions is that"chocolate"is the derivation of the languages of the inhabitants of Mexico from the pre-Columbian period.

Today, the word chocolate is used to name any product that contains cocoa. This is due to the great importance that cocoa had in the economy of the colonial era due to the commerce of the same thanks to Hernán Cortés.

Currently, the study of the origin and chronology of incorporation into the Spanish language of the word chocolate (as well as the source of its structural changes of form and meaning) is discussed.

The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines the word chocolate as: "Pasta made with ground cocoa and sugar, to which cinnamon or vanilla is usually added".

Therefore, the word chocolate, derives from Central American languages and was adapted over time by the Spaniards to their own linguistic system, which was then incorporated into many other languages or languages.

Chocolate word lexical family

Where does the word chocolate come from? 2

The lexical family or family of words is a set of words that share the same root. Thus, from the word chocolate, the root is"chocolat"and its family of words or derivatives are:

Chocolatera: Container where the chocolate is served or prepared.
Chocolatería: Place where chocolate is made or sold.
Chocolatero: A person who prepares or sells chocolate.
Chocolatín: Chocolate candy.

These words are the union of a root and, at least, a derivative element, which can be suffix or prefix. The ways of forming the words listed follow the procedures of the Spanish language system. It is in all cases of derivatives by suffixation.

Incorporating the word chocolate into other languages

From the Amerindian languages to Spanish, the word chocolate was derived. This in turn, was incorporated into several different types of languages:

German: Schokolade
Danish: Chokolade
French: Chocolat
Dutch: Chocolade
Indonesian: Coklat
Italian: Cioccolato
Polish: Czekolada
Swedish: Choklad

The word chocolate was incorporated into many other languages. In both English and Portuguese, the word is spelled the same, but of course, its pronunciation varies according to the tune of the language.

References

Coe, S. & Coe, M. (2013). The True History of Chocolate. London, United Kingdom: Thames and Hudson.
American Heritage. (2007). Spanish Word Histories and Mysteries: English Words That Come From Spanish. Boston, United States: American Heritage Dictionaries.
Hualde, J. & Olarrea, A. & Escobar, A. (2002). Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics. Cambridge, United Kingdom: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
López and López, M.. (2010). THE CHOCOLATE. ITS ORIGIN, ITS MANUFACTURING AND ITS UTILITY: SCRIPTIVE MEMORY OF THE FIRST CHOCOLATE FACTORY OF THE ESCORIAL. California, United States: MAXTOR.
Clarke, W. Tresper. Sidelights in the history of cacao and chocolate. Brooklyn, N.Y., Rockwood and Co. 1953 8 pp. See Intern. Choc. Rev. 8 (7): 179-183. July 1953.
Walter Baker & CO. The chocolate plant (Theobroma cacao) and its products. Dorchester, Mass., U.S.A., 1891. 40 pp.
Hernández Triviño, Ascension. (2013). Chocolate: history of a nahuatlismo. Náhuatl Culture Studies , 46 , 37-87. Retrieved on March 31, 2017, from scielo.org.mx.