Chocolatey

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Possessing a flavor, texture, or appearance that closely resembles chocolate in its sweetness and richness
2. Exhibiting flavor, texture, or characteristics similar to chocolate's sweetness and richness
3. Having a taste, texture, or color that strongly reminds one of chocolate

Etymology: The English word "chocolate" arrived from Spanish, which had borrowed it from Classical Nahuatl "chocolātl", the drink made from cacao beans in Mesoamerica. So the root of this adjective is a word from the Americas that reached English only after Spanish colonists carried the cacao drink across the Atlantic. "Chocolatey" is simply "chocolate" with the suffix "-y", which turns a noun into an adjective meaning "having the qualities of" or "full of" the thing named. The suffix itself is old, descending through Middle English from Old English "-ig", and it has been attached to countless nouns over the centuries, from "milky" to "sandy". Adding it to "chocolate" produced a descriptive term for anything that tastes, looks, or feels like the confection. The spelling "chocolatey" is an alternative to "chocolaty", which shows the same suffix. Both forms exist in English, and the choice between them is largely a matter of preference, since the base word and the suffix are identical in each.

Synonyms: cocoa, sweet

Antonyms: bitter, sour