It is sweet to reflect, as you savour a bar of chocolate, that you are also consuming a little of the ancient Aztec language, Nahuatl. The Aztecs called the juice from the pods of the cacao tree xocoatl, which meant “bitter water”. The Spaniards first adopted and then adapted this pretty word, and the English misheard it from Spanish, as chocolate.

Intriguing linguistic delicacies.