Mexican X-plainer: Chiclets & Aztecs
3 min readJan 10, 2019
Among the handful of English words ultimately derived from Nahuatl is “Chiclet,” a brand of chewing gum named after the sap of the Manilkara chicle, a tropical tree native to Mesoamerica. In fact, several species of Manikara produce the substance, including the Manikara zapota, commonly known as the “sapodilla” — both adaptations of the Nahuatl name for the trees: tzapotl.
