There is a well-known West Indian fruit which we call an avocado or alligator-pear, and which the French call avocat and the Spaniards aguacate. All these names are corruptions of the Aztec name of the fruit, ahuacatl.
Vanilla and cochineal were first found in Mexico; but the Spaniards did not adopt the unpronounceable native names, tlilxochitl and nocheztli. Vanilla, vainilla, means a little bean, from vaina, which signifies a scabbard or sheath, also a pod. Cochinilla is from coccus, a berry, as it was at first supposed to be of vegetable origin. The Aztec name for cochineal, nocheztli, means “cactus-blood,” and is a very apt description of the insect, which has in it a drop of deep crimson fluid, in which the colouring matter of the dye is contained.
The turkey, which was introduced into Europe from Mexico, was called huexolotl from the gobbling noise it makes. (It must be remembered that x and j in Spanish are not the same letters as in English, but a hard guttural aspirate, like the German ch). The name, slightly altered into guajalote, is still used in Mexico; but when these birds were brought to Europe, the Spaniards called them peacocks (pavos). To get rid of the confusion, it became necessary to call the real peacock “pavón” (big peacock), or “pavo real” (royal peacock). The German name for a turkey, “Wälscher Hahn,” “Italian fowl,” is reasonable, for the Germans got them from Italy; but our name “turkey” is wonderfully absurd.
There may be other Mexican words to be found in our language, but not many. The Mexicans were cultivating maize and tobacco when the Spaniards invaded the country, and had done so for ages; but these vegetables had been found already in the West India islands, and had got their name from the language of Hayti, mahiz and tabaco; the latter word, it seems, meaning not the tobacco itself, but the cigars made of it.
I do not recollect anything else worthy of note that Europe has borrowed from Ancient Mexico, except Botanic Gardens, and dishes made to keep