chocolate

Etymology

Via Spanish chocolate from a Nahuatl word, 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. Another theory is that the prefix came from Yucatec Maya chocol (“hot”).

noun

1. (chiefly uncountable) A food made from ground roasted cocoa beans.
   Chocolate is a very popular treat.
2. (chiefly uncountable) A drink made by dissolving this food in boiling milk or water.
3. (countable) A single, small piece of confectionery made from chocolate.
   He bought her some chocolates as a gift. She ate one chocolate and threw the rest away.
4. (uncountable) A dark, reddish-brown colour/color, like that of chocolate (also called chocolate brown).
   As he cooked it the whole thing turned a rich, deep chocolate.
   chocolate:
5. (countable, slang) A black person; (uncountable) blackness.
   "I suppose you have some of your sweet chocolates working for you?" Barney nodded. 1967, James David Horan, The Right Image: A Novel of the Men who Make Candidates, page 73
   I can consume as much of you as I want to without gaining weight. Sexy chocolate is what you are. 2009, Evangeline Holloway, The Reincarnation of Love, page 83
   “How is my sexy chocolate?” Mark says on the other end. 2011, Ella Campbell, Torn: The Melissa Williams Story, page 69
   “Yes Lucas, you're some fine sexy chocolate”, she whispered, her long dark hair covering her face and the curves bursting out of her dress. 2012, Harry Davis, My Name Is Lucas

adj

1. Made of or containing chocolate.
2. Having a dark reddish-brown colour/color.
3. (slang) Black (relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin).
   She was a chocolate honey with all the assets necessary to never have to work hard to pay her bills. 2005, Patrick Goines, Unfinished Business, page 29
   Therefore, African Americans complexion range from fair to mahogony. When a baby is born, it's always a mystery of the hue of the child. Sometimes the child will be as white as the slave owner or as chocolate as a great great grandparent. 2010, Delores J. Dillard, Papua, New Guinea, 1983, page 27
   If you are as chocolate as an African queen, do you really think you'll look better as a bottle blonde? 2011, Stephanie Stokes Oliver, Daily Cornbread, page 200

verb

1. (transitive, rare, chiefly in the past participle) To add chocolate to; to cover (food) in chocolate.
2. (rare, biology) To treat blood agar by heating in order to lyse the red blood cells in the medium.
   Other formulations have been adopted to supply these growth factors; these include heating or "chocolating" the blood agar to release NAD directly from the erythrocytes in the agar medium. August 1992, R. Rennie, “Laboratory and Clinical Evaluations of Media for the Primary Isolation of Haemophilus Species”, in Journal of Clinical Microbiology, volume 30, number 8, page 1917
   It is a chocolated blood agar but here whole horse blood is used. 2000, Ochei Et Al, Medical Laboratory Science : Theory And Practice, page 843
   The mixture is incubated at 75°C until chocolating has taken place. 2003, Mark A. Herbert, Haemophilus influenzae Protocols, page 73