chipotle

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish chipotle, also chilpotle, in the Spanish of Mexico,^[2][3][4] recorded there by 1845 as chilpocle.^[2] The Spanish word is from Nahuatl chīlpōctli,^[2][4][3] which the American Heritage and Merriam-Webster dictionaries treat as an assumed form.^[4][3] It is a compound of chīlli (“chili pepper”), the source of chili, and pōctli (“smoke”).^[2][4][3][5] Dictionary.com instead derives it from Nahuatl xipotli.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dried and smoked ripe jalapeño pepper: 1922, in C. L. Algara's contribution to the Castelar Crèche Cook Book.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1950,^[5] the date of the first quotation in the OED's 2003 draft, from C. P. Leahy's Spanish-Mexican Cookbook.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word names a ripe jalapeño that has been dried and smoked, which is dark reddish-brown and has a strong, piquant flavour.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dated the word to 1988, but Merriam-Webster now has a record from 1922.^[8][3] Popik quotes a description of the pepper as widely used in Mexico and the United States, and especially popular in the American Southwest and California.^[7] It is often used before another noun, as in chipotle mayonnaise.^[9] Popik quotes a description of the smoking as a way of preserving a fleshy pepper that was hard to dry.^[7]

Timeline

• 1922 – first English record, in a cookbook.^[2][3] Etymonline dates the word to 1950.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ripe jalapeño chili pepper that has been dried and smoked, used especially in Mexican cooking: She stirred two chipotles into the bean stew.^[9][3][2]
2. Used before another noun, flavoured with such peppers: chipotle sauce.^[9]

Related words

• chili
• jalapeño

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Chipotle", 25 November 2006
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins