The word chile refers to the fruit of the plant of the genus Capsicum, also known as hot pepper, red pepper, jalapeño, habanero, chipotle or ají. These fruits are notorious for their bright red, yellow, or green color and their spicy flavor.
This term comes from Mesoamerica and began to be used in Spanish at the beginning of the 16th century, approximately. Shortly afterwards, its use spread to other languages, such as English, as can be seen in the text by Henry Stubbe (1662) entitled "Discourse Concerning Chocolata" (in Spanish: Discourse regarding chocolate), in which expresses: Some pepper called chille… was put in. (They added a pepper called chili).
Etymology of the word “chile”
The term "chile" comes from Mesoamerica, specifically from the Aztec Nahualt language. This language was spoken by these aborigines since the 7th century BC, so it can be speculated that this word has such antiquity.
Nahualt was not a written language; For this reason, the Spanish romanized the term taking into account the pronunciation of the Aztecs and came up with the written form “chilli”.
One of the first written references to this word is found in the texts of Francisco Hernández de Toledo, originally in Latin.
Doctor and botanist, Hernández de Toledo was commissioned by King Felipe II to study the medicinal plants of the New World.
In his text "Four books on the nature and medicinal virtues of the plants and animals of New Spain", Hernández de Toledo refers to the "chilli tree":
CHAP. X From the Qvellaman Holquahuitl Tree, Or chilli tree
Of this tree called holquahuitl, there are two genera, the wine does not produce the tawny trunk, full of thick, slow and sticky, white flowers, and very large leaves, and that have several round glouos like stars, that of Blondes throw braids, attached to the same trunk, full of white fruit the size of cubicrtas hazelnuts with several yellow webs, and with a bitter taste, the other has orange leaves, but larger, the bark of both trees is bitter.
From the description and image presented in his book, it is possible that Hernández del Toledo refers to the Peruvian white habanero.
Currently, in Spanish the term is no longer spelled “chilli”, but rather “chile”, with only one exception: the Mexican dish chili con carne.
Chile, the pepper and Chile, the country
Chiles en nogada.
The idea that the word “chile” (pepper) is related to the country Chile is very old and it is also false.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in 1631 both terms were confused for the first time, the botanist Jacobus Bontius being responsible for this confusion.
The name of the country Chile probably comes from the Mapuche (or Araucanian) word “chili”, which means “cold” or “winter”.
References
- Chili. Retrieved on May 17, 2017, from en.wikipedia.org.
- Chili. Retrieved on May 17, 2017, from en.wiktionary.org.
- Chili. Retrieved on May 17, 2017, from etymonline.com.
- Chili. Retrieved on May 17, 2017, dewordorigins.org.
- Four Books of the Nature and Medicinal Virtues of the Plants and Animals of New Spain. Retrieved on May 17, 2017, books.google.com.
- Chili History. Retrieved on May 17, 2017, nationalchilidat.com.
- Chili. Retrieved on May 17, 2017, dictionary.com.
- Chili. Retrieved on May 17, 2017, enoxforddictionaries.com.