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ca·ca·o

(kə-kou, -kāō)

n. pl. ca·ca·os

1. An evergreen tropical American tree (Theobroma cacao) having leathery, ellipsoid, ten-ribbed fruits borne on the trunks and older branches. Also called chocolate tree.

2. The seed of this plant, used in making chocolate, cocoa, and cocoa butter. Also called cacao bean, cocoa bean.

[Spanish, from Nahuatl cacahuatl, perhaps from proto-Mixe-Zoque *kakawa; compare Mixe cacu and Zoque cacva (proto-Mixe-Zoquean perhaps being the language of the Olmec civilization and thus the ultimate source of many Mesoamerican cultural words).]

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cacao

ripe cacao pods

Theobroma cacao

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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