origins beyond this are contentious. Despite a popular belief that chocolate derives from the Nahuatl word chocolatl, early texts documenting the Nahuatl word for chocolate drink use a different term, cacahuatl, meaning "cacao water". Several alternatives have therefore been proposed.

In one, chocolate is derived from the hypothetical Nahuatl word xocoatl, meaning "bitter drink". Scholars Michael and Sophie Coe