Forms: 7 chille, 7–9 chile, 8 chilly, 9 chili, 7 chilli, Pl. chillies. [In Sp. chile, chili, a. Mexican chilli, the native name in 16th c.
Simeon, Dict. Langue Nahuatl, has ‘Chilli, piment dont on compte douze espèces principales; il sert à composer avec le maīs une boisson très-recherchée chilli atolli, chillatolli.’ So ‘chilatl eau de chilli,’ etc. As early as 1631, Bontius erroneously stated that the name was from Chile in S. America ‘quasi dicas piper a Chile.’]
1. The dried pod of species of Capsicum or Red Pepper, esp. C. annuum fastigiatum, and frutescens. The pods, which are acrid, pangent, and of a deep red color when ripe, are largely used as a condiment, and when reduced to powder form the basis of Cayenne pepper.
1662. H. Stubbe, Ind. Nectar, ii. 10. Some Pepper called Chille … was put in.
1676. Worlidge, Cyder (1691), 179. Two Cods, or Pods, of Chile. Ibid., 184. Chile, or long Pepper.
1685. J. Chamberlayne, Coffee, Tea & Choc., 89. Some hold there are but two sorts of Chiles or Chilli, the one the Eastern which is Ginger, and the other Western, which is the Pepper of Mexico.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, iii. (1853), 18. ‘Try a chili with it, Miss Sharp,’ said Joseph, really interested. ‘A chili,’ said Rebecca, gasping; ‘oh yes!’ She thought a chili was something cool, as its name imported.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 149. In tropical countries chillies are used in great quantities.
b. The shrub that bears chillies.
1843. Prescott, Mexico, III. vi. (1864), 169. Fields of towering maize, the juicy aloe, the chilli or Aztec pepper.
2. Comb., as chilli-vinegar, vinegar flavored with chillies.
1818. Byron, Beppo, viii. Soy, Chili-vinegar, and Harvey.
