chocolatl

Central Nahuatl

Alternative forms

• (Tlaxcala): chokolatl

Etymology

Cognate to Classical Nahuatl chocolatl

Noun

chocolatl

1. chocolate

Classical Nahuatl

Etymology

Uncertain. Popularly accepted **xocolātl, through xocolia (“to make sour”) +‎ ātl (“water”), literally “to make the water sour”, ultimately from xococ (“sour”) +‎ ātl (“water”), the substitution of /tʃ/ for /ʃ/ not being uncommon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʃokolaːt͡ɬ/

Noun

chocolātl

1. A drink with pulverized toasted cacao beans and water, described as cold and foamy. Sometimes fermented and sometimes as a thick drink. It can include a variety of additional ingredients (chili, bee honey, pochotl seeds, pulverized maize corn, vanilla seeds, and many others).

Descendants

• Central Nahuatl: chocolatl
• Central Huasteca Nahuatl: chokolatl
• → Spanish: chocolate (see there for further descendants)

References

• Karttunen, Frances. (1992) An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press (original publication in 1983, University of Texas Press), p. 54.
• Ed. Simon Varey, transl. Rafael Chabrán, Cynthia L. Chamberlin, and Simon Varey. (2000) The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández, Stanford University Press, p. 109.
• de Sahagún, Bernardino. (1585) Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva España, vol. 3, cap. XXVI, p. 68.

Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl

Etymology

Cognate to Classical Nahuatl chocolatl

Noun

chocolatl

1. chocolate

Northern Puebla Nahuatl

Noun

chocolatl

1. chocolate (clarification of this definition is needed)

References

• Brockway, Earl, Hershey de Brockway, Trudy, Santos Valdés, Leodegario (2018) Diccionario náhuatl del norte del estado de Puebla (Series de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas "Mariano Silva y Aceves"; 42)‎^[1] (in Spanish), segunda ILV edición (versión electrónica) edition, Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, A.C., page 34