Etymologically
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chili

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈt͡ʃɪli/[1]
  • UK: /ˈt͡ʃɪliː/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish chile, the Mexican Spanish name,[2][3][4][5] from Classical Nahuatl chīlli, the native name of the pepper;[2][4][3][6] Etymonline takes the English word directly from Nahuatl.[6] Wilton notes that the word is recorded in Alonso de Molina's Nahuatl–Spanish dictionary of 1571, and that the double l of Nahuatl marked a long consonant: Spanish and American English spell it with one l, while British English tends to keep two.[7] It has nothing to do with the country Chile or with chilly.[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The pungent pod or fruit of an American pepper: Merriam-Webster dates it to 1604,[2] Etymonline to the 1640s,[6] and Barnhart's first record, in the form chille, is from 1662.[3][8] Wilton quotes Thomas Gage's New Survey of the West-Indias from the middle of the 17th century, where Mexican beans are boiled "with a little biting Chille or Indian pepper".[7]

Semantic evolution

The word was used as short for chili con carne, a stew of meat and chilies, by 1846,[6][3][9] and Wilton finds the full phrase in the title of S. Compton Smith's book on the Mexican–American War (1857).[7] According to Popik, chili powder may have been invented, or at least popularized, by the Gebhardt company of San Antonio in the 1890s,[10] and chili was made the official state dish of Texas in 1977.[11] In the American West, chili was also a derogatory nickname for a Mexican, recorded from 1936.[12] In Black American slang of the 1940s and 1950s it was a verb, to ignore someone, perhaps from chill.[13]

Timeline

  • 1604 – the hot pepper.[2]
  • 1640s – the pod or fruit of an American pepper.[6]
  • 1662 – chille.[3][8]
  • 1846 – short for chili con carne.[6][3]
  • 1936 – a derogatory nickname for a Mexican, in the American West.[12]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The small, hot-tasting pod of a kind of capsicum, used fresh or dried as a flavouring: She chopped two green chilies into the salsa.
  2. (chiefly British, usually chilli) A pepper of any kind, hot or sweet.
  3. Chili con carne, or a similar spicy dish with or without meat.
  4. A thick sauce made mainly of meat and chilies.

Word family

  • chilidog
  • chiliburger
  • chili oil
  • chili pepper
  • chili powder
  • chili sauce
  • chili con carne
  • Chile
  • chilly

Usage notes

The usual American spelling is chili, with chile as an accepted variant;[14][2] British English prefers chilli.[14][5][2] The plurals are chilies or chiles in the United States and chillies in Britain.[14][2] Merriam-Webster also records a separate chili, a hot, dry south wind in Tunisia, borrowed through French from a Maghrebi Arabic word for the south wind.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d Wilton, Dave, Wordorigins.org, wordorigins.org, p. "Chili", 28 July 2022
  8. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
  10. ^ Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Chili Powder", 21 September 2006
  11. ^ Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Vegan Chili", 15 November 2007
  12. ^ a b Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
  13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ a b c O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart, The Grammarphobia Blog, grammarphobia.com, p. "Chili, chile, or chilli?", 19 September 2013