cacao

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish cacao,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in Spanish before 1526, in letters by Hernán Cortés,^[2] from Classical Nahuatl cacahuatl (“cocoa bean, tree bearing cacao pods”),^[2][5][6] also cacahua-,^[2] altered after Spanish plant names ending in -o.^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart take the Spanish word from the root form, which they give as cacaua;^[3][4] Weekley calls it a wrong division of caca-uatl,^[7] and Hoad and the Shorter Oxford explain the second part as uatl (“tree”).^[8][9] The American Heritage Dictionary suggests that the Nahuatl word may itself come from Proto-Mixe-Zoquean *kakawa, that language being perhaps the one of the Olmec civilization.^[6] From Spanish it spread directly or indirectly to Middle French cacao (1532), Dutch cacao (by 1596), German Cacao (1598, now usually Kakao) and Italian cacao (1605).^[2] Cocoa is a later variant of the same word, probably at least partly through confusion with coco.^[2][3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The seed of a tropical American tree, from which cocoa and chocolate are prepared: 1555, in Eden's translation of Peter Martyr's Decades.^[2][5][4] Etymonline gives the 1550s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant the seed, and soon also the tree (1604, in Grimeston's translation of Acosta) and a drink made from the seed (1625, in Purchas).^[2] From 1655 to 1751 it also denoted the pod.^[2] Johnson (1755) merely referred the reader to "chocolate nut".^[11] The variant cocoa is recorded from 1707 for the seeds, and has been the regular spelling from about 1800.^[3] The OED says that the two have been used interchangeably since the 17th century, but that cacao now mostly concerns the plant itself, and cocoa the semi-processed commodity or food.^[2] Weekley still called cacao the earlier and correct form.^[7]

Timeline

• 1555 – the seed of the tree, from which cocoa and chocolate are made.^[2][5][4]
• 1604 – the tree itself.^[2]
• 1625 – a drink made from the seed.^[2]
• 1655 – the fruit or pod of the tree (obsolete by 1751).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The seed of a tropical American tree, dried and partly fermented, used to make cocoa, chocolate and cocoa butter.^[5][2][6]
2. The evergreen tree that bears these seeds, Theobroma cacao, with large pods growing directly on its trunk and older branches.^[12][5][6]
3. A drink made from the seed; hot chocolate.^[2]

Word family

• cacao bean
• cacao butter

Related words

• cocoa
• coco

Usage notes

The OED notes that the two-syllable pronunciation /kəˈkaʊ/ is apparently not recorded in pronouncing dictionaries before the late 20th century; its first edition (1888) gives only the three-syllable /kəˈkeɪəʊ/ and /kəˈkɑːəʊ/.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins