A short form of both chili pepper and chili con came, the word chili derives from the Nahuatl language, spoken by the peoples of southern Mexico and Central America. At the end of the fifteenth century, Christopher Columbus returned to Europe after contacting these people and reported that they used the hot fruit of a native plant to season their food; however, because Columbus was still under the mistaken impression that he had indeed made it to India, these peppers were originally referred to as Calcutta peppers. The Spanish were the first to use the Native American name, chili, but by the mid seventeenth century, the real Nahuatl origin of chili had been more or less forgotten, leading some experts to mistakenly suppose that the peppers were named after the South American country called Chile. (Of course, neither chili the pepper nor Chile the country are related to the English word chilly, but by a strange coincidence the name Chile may derive from a Native South American word meaning cold.) In English, chili did not appear until the mid seventeenth century, while the dish called chili con came—Spanish for chili peppers with meat—was not referred to by name till the mid nineteenth century.
Chili peppers are small, red pods from a type of Capsicum plant. They are widely used in Mexican and southwestern US cuisine. Chili peppers can be eaten raw, dried, or dried and ground into a powder. They have a very hot and spicy flavor and are used in pickles, sauces, chutneys, and for flavoring vinegar. Chili powder is made by grinding dried chili peppers.