Cacaoyer
/ˌkækəˈɔɪə/noun
A cacao tree, especially one cultivated for its beans.
Did you know?The word ultimately connects to Indigenous Mesoamerican naming traditions for cacao, whose beans were once valuable enough to function as currency among the Aztecs.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Columbian era
Proto-Mayan
*kakaw
“Cacao; a reconstructed early Mesoamerican form”
Before the 16th century
Classical Nahuatl
cacahuatl
“Cacao or cacao water”
16th Century
Spanish
cacao
“Cacao; borrowed from an Indigenous Mesoamerican language”
17th–18th Century
French
cacaoyer
“Cacao tree, formed from cacao with the tree-forming suffix -yer”
Modern English
English
cacaoyer
“A cacao tree; a rare botanical loanword”