Origin and history of cacao

cacao(n.)

seed from which cocoa and chocolate are made, 1550s, from Spanish cacao "the cocoa bean," an adaptation of Nahuatl (Aztecan) cacaua, root form of cacahuatl "bean of the cocoa-tree."

also from 1550s

Entries linking to cacao

cocoa(n.)

"brown powder produced by grinding roasted seeds of the cacao, an American evergreen tree," 1788, originally the seeds themselves (1707), corruption (by influence of coco) of cacao. The confusion with coco was already underway in English when the printers of Johnson's dictionary ran together the entries for coco and cocoa, after which it has never been undone. Cocoa has been the regular spelling from c. 1800.

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    Alexander
    As a kind of cocktail recipe featuring crème de cacao and cream, Alexander is attested from 1913; the reason for the name...
    chocolate
    As a paste or cake made of ground, roasted, sweetened cacao seeds, 1640s. As "a piece of chocolate candy," 1880s....
    tree
    Old English treo, treow "tree" (also "timber, wood, beam, log, stake"), from Proto-Germanic *trewam (source also of Old Frisian tre, Old Saxon trio, Old Norse tre, Gothic triu "tree"), from PIE *drew-o-, suffixed variant form of root *deru- "be firm, solid, steadfast," with speci
    oblivion
    late 14c., oblivioun, "state or fact of forgetting, forgetfulness, loss of memory," from Old French oblivion (13c.) and directly from Latin oblivionem (nominative oblivio) "forgetfulness; a being forgotten," from oblivisci (past participle oblitus) "forget," which is of uncertain
    skate
    "type of flat, cartilaginous fish, a kind of ray," mid-14c., scate, in reference to the common European skate, from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse skata "skate," Danish skade, Faeroese skøta, a word of unknown origin. All skates are rays, but all rays are not called ska
    tender
    "soft, easily injured," early 13c., from Old French tendre "soft, delicate; young" (11c.), from Latin tenerem (nominative tener) "soft, delicate; of tender age, youthful," from a derivative of PIE root *ten- "to stretch," on the notion of "stretched," hence "thin," hence "weak" o
    kaput
    "finished, worn out, dead," 1895 as a German word in English, from German kaputt "destroyed, ruined, lost" (1640s), which in this sense probably is a misunderstanding of an expression from card-playing, capot machen, a partial translation into German of French faire capot, a phra
    staple
    late 13c., stapel, "bent piece of metal with pointed ends," from Old English stapol, stapel "post, pillar, trunk of a tree, steps to a house," from Proto-Germanic *stapulaz "pillar" (source also of Old Norse stopull "tower," Old Saxon stapal "candle, small tub," Old Frisian stapu
    seal
    "design stamped on wax," especially an impressed figure attached to a document as evidence of authenticity, c. 1200, sel, sele, from Old French seel, seal "seal on a letter" (Modern French sceau), from Vulgar Latin *sigellum (source of Italian suggello, Spanish sello; also Old Fr
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    Dictionary entries near cacao