17. Chocolate Often said to be from Nahuatl xocolÄtl which would be derived from xococ "bitter" and Ätl "water However, the form xocolÄtl is not directly attested, and chocolatl does not appear in Nahuatl until the mid-18th century. Some researchers have recently proposed that the chocol- element was originally chicol-, and referred to special wooden stick used to prepare chocolate. Kakaw ('cacao') written in the Maya script. The word was also written in several other ways in old Maya texts.