Chocolate
early 17th century (in the sense ‘a drink made with chocolate’): from French chocolat or Spanish chocolate, from Nahuatl chocolatl ‘food made from cacao seeds’, influenced by unrelated cacaua-atl ‘drink made from cacao’.
wiktionary
Via Spanish chocolate from a Nahuatl word, [1] [2] [3] widely given as chocolātl (with the second element being a reflex of Classical Nahuatl ātl(“water”)), although such a word does not appear in Nahuatl until the mid-18th century according to Karttunen. Dakin and Wichmann propose chicolātl as the original form (saying it survives in several modern Nahuatl dialects) and say the chicol- element refers to a special wooden stick used to prepare chocolate. [4] Another theory is that the prefix came from Yucatec Maya chocol(“hot”).
etymonline
chocolate (n.)
c. 1600, from Mexican Spanish chocolate, from Nahuatl (Aztecan) chocola-tl,"chocolate," and/or cacahua-tl "chocolate, chocolate bean." With a-tl "water." In the first form, the first element might be related to xocalia "to make something bitter or sour" [Karttunen]. Made with cold water by the Aztecs, with hot water by the Conquistadors, and the European forms of the word might have been influenced by Mayan chocol "hot." Brought to Spain by 1520, from there it spread to the rest of Europe. Originally a drink made by dissolving chocolate in milk or water, it was very popular 17c.
To a Coffee-house, to drink jocolatte, very good [Pepys, diary, Nov. 24, 1664].
As a paste or cake made of ground, roasted, sweetened cacao seeds, 1640s. As "a piece of chocolate candy," 1880s. As a dark reddish-brown color from 1776. The adjective is from 1723 as "made of or flavored with chocolate;" 1771 as "having the color of chocolate." Chocolate milk is by 1845. Chocolate-chip is from 1940.
