Monday, April 30, 2007

CHIPOTLE or CHIPOLTE ??

I've been a bit confused about this for some time. I know the name of the burrito joint owned by McDonalds is Chipotle, but I've seen menus at restaurants which spell it with the L before the T.Chipolte, and folks often say it that way. I've also seen recipes which have it spelled with the L first. Well, this morning I finally found out the corrrect way and I'm looking forward to correcting people on this when the opportunity comes along. If y'all will join me on this, hopefully within a few short years we can have this common mistake eradicated.

Etymology

The word chipotle, which was also sometimes spelled chilpoctle and chilpotle, comes to English originally from the Nahuatl word chilpoctli by way of Mexican Spanish. The Nahuatl word chilpoctli means "smoked chile", formed from chil (="chile pepper") + poctli (="smoke"). The original Nahuatl word was spelled "pochilli" and has apparently become reversed. Today it is commonly misspelled and mispronounced as chipolte, an error of metathesis. Other early spellings from Mexico are tzilpoctil, tzonchilli and texochilli. The most common pronunciation is chee-POHT-lay, although some of those who are aware of this word's Nahuatl roots prefer the more historical pronunciation chee-POHT-til. Some Mexicans refer to chipotles as chile poctle.

5 comments:

casey at s914 said...

great more spelling police........uh ow vay.........

Anonymous said...

i like freebird's...

casey at s914 said...

i agree this chipotle or what ever is awfull in comparison

Buck Wayne said...

Yes, I like Freebirds myself, there's just not one close to my crib. How come Chopotle doesn't have jalapenos on their line?? A mexican burrito joint in Texas with no Jalapenos!! And the place is named after a freakin pepper?!

Anonymous said...

i didn't say i dislike chipotle - in fact, i like it a lot, but i probably prefer freebird's

KEVIN: CONGRATS DAD!