chocolate

Etymology

Often said to come from Nahuatl *xocolātl (e.g. American Heritage Dictionary 2000) or chocolatl (e.g. dictionary.com 2006), which would be derived from xococ (“bitter”) and ātl (“water”), with an irregular change of x to ch. However, the form xocolātl is not directly attested, and chocolatl does not appear in Nahuatl until the mid-18th century. Dakin and Wichmann (2000) propose that the chocol- element refers to a special wooden stick used to prepare chocolate, and suggest that the etymon is chicolātl, a word found in several modern Nahuatl dialects. Yet another theory is that the prefix came from Yucatec Maya chocol (“hot”).

In any case, the word chocolate reached English via Spanish and the second element is probably the Nahuatl word ātl (“water”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɒk(ə)lɪt/, /ˈt͡ʃɒk(ə)lət/

• Audio (UK)

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• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɔk(ə)lət/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɑk(ə)lɪt/, /ˈt͡ʃɔk(ə)lɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (CA)

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Noun

chocolate (countable and uncountable, plural chocolates)

1. (chiefly uncountable) A food made from ground roasted cocoa beans.

   Chocolate is a very popular treat.

2. (chiefly uncountable) A drink made by dissolving this food in boiling milk or water.
3. (countable) A single, small piece of confectionery made from chocolate.

   He bought her some chocolates as a gift. She ate one chocolate and threw the rest away.

4. (uncountable) A dark, reddish-brown colour/color, like that of chocolate.

   As he cooked it the whole thing turned a rich, deep chocolate.

   chocolate colour:  

5. (countable, slang) A black person; (uncountable) blackness.
   • 1967, James David Horan, The Right Image: A Novel of the Men who Make Candidates, page 73:

     "I suppose you have some of your sweet chocolates working for you?" Barney nodded.

   • 2009, Evangeline Holloway, The Reincarnation of Love, →ISBN, page 83:

     I can consume as much of you as I want to without gaining weight. Sexy chocolate is what you are.

   • 2011, Ella Campbell, Torn: The Melissa Williams Story, →ISBN, page 69:

     “How is my sexy chocolate?” Mark says on the other end.

   • 2012, Harry Davis, My Name Is Lucas, →ISBN:

     “Yes Lucas, you're some fine sexy chocolate”, she whispered, her long dark hair covering her face and the curves bursting out of her dress.

Adjective

chocolate (comparative more chocolate, superlative most chocolate)

1. Made of or containing chocolate.
2. Having a dark reddish-brown colour/color.
3. (slang) Black (relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin).
   • 2005, Patrick Goines, Unfinished Business, page 29:

     She was a chocolate honey with all the assets necessary to never have to work hard to pay her bills.

   • 2010, Delores J. Dillard, Papua, New Guinea, 1983, page 27:

     Therefore, African Americans complexion range from fair to mahogony. When a baby is born, it's always a mystery of the hue of the child. Sometimes the child will be as white as the slave owner or as chocolate as a great great grandparent.

   • 2011, Stephanie Stokes Oliver, Daily Cornbread, page 200:

     If you are as chocolate as an African queen, do you really think you'll look better as a bottle blonde?

Verb

chocolate (third-person singular simple present chocolates, present participle chocolating, simple past and past participle chocolated)

1. (transitive, rare, chiefly in the past participle) To add chocolate to; to cover (food) in chocolate.
2. (rare, biology) To treat blood agar by heating in order to lyse the red blood cells in the medium.
   • 1992 August 1, R. Rennie, “Laboratory and Clinical Evaluations of Media for the Primary Isolation of Haemophilus Species”, in Journal of Clinical Microbiology, volume 30, number 8, page 1917:

     Other formulations have been adopted to supply these growth factors; these include heating or "chocolating" the blood agar to release NAD directly from the erythrocytes in the agar medium.

   • 2000, Ochei Et Al, Medical Laboratory Science : Theory And Practice, page 843:

     It is a chocolated blood agar but here whole horse blood is used.

   • 2003, Mark A. Herbert, Haemophilus influenzae Protocols, page 73:

     The mixture is incubated at 75°C until chocolating has taken place.

References

• “chocolate” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• 2000, Karen Dakin, Søren Wichmann, ‘Cacao and Chocolate: An Uto-Aztec perspective’, Ancient Mesoamerica, vol. 11, pages 55–75.
• 1983, Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (University of Texas Press), page 54.

Further reading

• chocolate on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Chocolate in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

Anagrams

• cacholote

Noun

chocolate m (plural chocolates)

1. Alternative form of chicolate

Verb

chocolate

1. first-person singular present indicative of chocolater
2. third-person singular present indicative of chocolater
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of chocolater
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of chocolater

Noun

chocolate m (plural chocolates)

1. chocolate

Noun

chocolate (plural chocolates)

1. chocolate

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish chocolate, from Classical Nahuatl [Term?], possibly from xocolātl or chocolātl (a late attestation), though the etymology is unclear. See chocolate.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ʃokoˈlat͡ʃi/
• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ʃukuˈlatɨ/

Noun

chocolate m (plural chocolates)

1. chocolate

Etymology

From Classical Nahuatl, possibly from xocolātl or chocolātl (a late attestation), though the etymology is unclear. See chocolate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃokoˈlate/, [t͡ʃokoˈlat̪e]

Noun

chocolate m (plural chocolates)

1. chocolate (food made from cocoa beans)
2. chocolate (drink made by dissolving chocolate in milk or water)
3. (slang) hashish (the leaves of the Indian hemp plant)

   Synonym: hachís