cacao

From Spanish cacao, from Classical Nahuatl cacahuatl. Doublet of cocoa.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəˈkɑːəʊ̯/, /kəˈkeɪ̯əʊ̯/, ,

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /kəˈkaʊ̯/, /kəˈkeɪ̯oʊ̯/, ,
• Rhymes: -aʊ

cacao (countable and uncountable, plural cacaos)

1. A tree, Theobroma cacao, whose seed is used to make chocolate.
2. The seed of this tree, the cocoa bean.
3. (rare) Cocoa (hot drink).
   • 1894, Eugene Murray-Aaron, The Butterfly Hunters in the Caribbees, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, pages 146 and 242:

     Therefore they left Port à Paix just as the first streaks of gray were appearing in the east, depending on a good hot cup of cacao and a couple of bananas to nourish them sufficiently until they could enjoy the breakfast that Dave would prepare for them at the end of their morning’s share of the day’s trip. […] “Doctor, we always say ‘cocoa’ in the north, but you and all these people where it grows say ‘cacao,’ I notice. How is that?” asked Hal. / “There are four very distinct vegetable growths that have names so much alike that they are constantly mixed in the minds of those who are not botanists or do not know them in nature,” the Doctor began. “These are: Cacao berries, Coca leaves, Coco roots, and Cocoa nuts. […]”

   • 1907 August, C[arl] V[ilhelm] Hartman, “Archeological Researches on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica”, in W[illiam] J[acob] Holland, editor, Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum, volume III, number 1, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Carnegie Institute, pages 5 and 7:

     Cacao was copiously used at their feasts, being colored with the red seeds of the achiote, or arnotto (Bixa orellana Linnæus), so that it resembled blood. At the festivals an intoxicating beer of corn was also copiously used and the rolled leaves of tobacco were smoked. […] And the Indians, both men and women, continued to drink the above-mentioned beverage, going and coming with it, and in the course of this drinking there were brought large cups of cacao prepared as they are accustomed to drink it.

   • 1993 November, David Drake, The Sharp End (The Hammer’s Slammers Series; 6), Riverdale, N.Y.: Baen Books, →ISBN, pages 170 and 175:

     “I wouldn’t mind something to drink,” Niko Daun said clearly. “You say you’ve got local cacao?” […] He set down the mug of cacao from which he’d been sipping with evident approval.

• cocoa
• crème de cacao

• cacao on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• cacau (obsolete)

Borrowed from Spanish cacao, from Classical Nahuatl cacahuatl.

• IPA^(key): /kɑˈkɑu̯/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ca‧cao
• Rhymes: -ɑu̯

cacao m (uncountable)

1. cocoa

• cacaoboom
• cacaoboon
• cacaoboter
• cacaomelk
• cacao-overeenkomst
• cacaopoeder

• Berbice Creole Dutch: kaukau
• Negerhollands: kwakwa
  • → Virgin Islands Creole: kwa kwa, kwakwa (archaic)
• → Caribbean Hindustani: kakáu
• → Indonesian: kakao
• → Sranan Tongo: kakaw
  • → Caribbean Javanese: kao, kekao
  • → Lokono: kakao

Borrowed from Spanish cacao, ultimately from Classical Nahuatl cacahuatl.

• IPA^(key): /ka.ka.o/

• Audio:

  (file)

cacao m (plural cacaos)

1. cocoa

• beurre de cacao
• cacaoté
• cacaotier
• cacaotière
• cacaoyer
• cacaoyère

• “cacao”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:

cacao

Wikipedia ^it

From Spanish cacao.

• IPA^(key): /kaˈka.o/
• Rhymes: -ao
• Hyphenation: ca‧cà‧o

cacao m (invariable)

1. cocoa

• cacao in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
• cacao in garzantilinguistica.it – Garzanti Linguistica, De Agostini Scuola Spa

Borrowed from French cacao; itself from Spanish cacao.

cacao f (uncountable)

1. cocoa

Borrowed from Classical Nahuatl cacahuatl (“cacao bean”). Doublet of cocoa.

• IPA^(key): /kaˈkao/

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ao
• Syllabification: ca‧ca‧o

cacao m (plural cacaos)

1. cacao tree

   Synonym: cacaotero

2. cocoa bean, cocoa powder
3. (colloquial) confusion

   Synonyms: desorden, confusión

   cacao mental ― bewilderment, discombobulation

• “cacao”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10
• cacao on the Spanish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^es