13 hours ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:And then there's "chili" vs. "chile." One is something you make for a cold night's dinner, and the other is a pepper.
History is against you on that one. 'Chili' was used for the pepper for hundreds of years before the dish was concocted. The word for the pepper came from the native Mexican language, Nahuatl which the Spanish, who were apparently extremely hard of hearing, rendered as Chilli. The name 'chile' was erroniously appled to the pepper in 1631 by the Dutch(?) physician, naturalist and writer Jacobus Bontius (1598?-1631) who thought it came from the country Chile, which it didnt. 'Chili' or 'Chilli' is the most commonly used name of the pepper in English worldwide and in other langages. In parts of India it is 'chilly' and I don't mean the weather.
