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The current widespread myth is that chocolate derives from a supposed Nahuatl word xocolatl, alleged to mean "bitter water". The problem is that no such word was recorded by the Spanish in their Nahuatl dictionaries (the earliest native language dictionaries in the Americas) although there is a Nahuatl word xococ meaning bitter. If the Spanish were met with a new drink of that name they would have certainly recorded it.

The element atl certainly means water or a drink.

A genuine Nahuatl word chicolatl would mean "a drink with something ground up in it", referring to cocoa beans.

The truth behind the myth may never be discovered.

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13y ago

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