Chili is Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, taken into English in the 1640s through Spanish: chilli was the native name for the peppers. It arrived alongside chocolate, tomato, avocado and coyote, the small group of everyday English words that came from Mexico by way of the Spanish who got there first.
Two things are worth noting. The word has nothing to do with the South American country, despite the spelling — the resemblance is a coincidence that has confused English speakers for centuries. And English has never settled its spelling: chili, chilli and chile are all current, split roughly between American, British and southwestern American usage. That instability is normal for a word borrowed through one language into another without ever passing through Latin, which is what usually standardises a spelling.
chili (n.) also chilli, chile , "pod or fruit of a type of American pepper," 1640s, from Nahuatl (Aztecan) chilli , native name for the peppers. Not named for the South American country. As short for chile con carne and similar dishes, attested by 1846. [In New Mexico a dish is] prepared with the ripe pods of chili after the seeds are removed. The pods are ground between two stones, then cooked in water and thickened with eggs well beaten. The green chili is prepared by roasting it in adobe bake-ovens until the outer skin peels off nicely; then it is mashed with the seeds in, and seasoned with salt and perhaps lard. The finishing dessert is a cigarette. ['A Teacher,' "Mexican Cookery" in Home Mission Monthly , November 1901] also from 1640s
chili came in through Later and wider borrowings, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
What gives it away on the page
| -tl reshaped into -te | Nahuatl, through Spanish.chocolate, tomato, avocado, coyote, chili |
Later and wider borrowings in the spelling guide · guess another word's family