Chili, chile or chilli

• « Chili », « chilli » and « chile » are 3 different ways of spelling, to designate the chilli pepper fruit.

  “Chile” is the Spanish spelling of the word and it is widely used in Mexico and in South America in general.

   

  “Chilli” corresponds to the romanization of the term to name the chilli pepper fruit in the Nahuàtl language, one of the dialects spoken by the Quechua Indians.

   

  Talking about the spelling with a single “l”: “chili”, it comes from the fact that the double “l” changed the pronounciation of the word in Spanish, hence the modification of its spelling. “Chili” is nowadays mainly used.

   

  As a conclusion, we shall remember that chilli peppers come from South America and that the word designating the fruit comes from the romanization of a word coming from the Quetchua