Etymology

The word chipotle, which was also sometimes spelled chilpoctle and chilpotle, comes to English originally from the Nahuatl word chilpoctli by way of Mexican Spanish. The Nahuatl word chilpoctli means "smoked chile", formed from chil (="chile pepper") + poctli (="smoke"). The original Nahuatl word was spelled "pochilli" and has apparently become reversed. Today it is commonly misspelled and mispronounced as chipolte, an error of metathesis. Other early spellings from Mexico are tzilpoctil, tzonchilli and texochilli. The most common pronunciation is chee-POHT-lay, although some prefer the pronunciation chee-POHT-til. Some Mexicans refer to chipotles as chile poctle.