Chocoholic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Chocoholism is a portmanteau of "chocolate" and "alcoholism," referring to an addiction to chocolate. Some claim to suffer from this "condition" and describe themselves as chocoholics.

Contents

[edit] Etymology

A thorough etymology of the word exhibits most possible morphological processes

  • chocoholism is a portmanteau of two English words chocolate and alcoholism. It is not a compound because it is made up of the meaningless segments cho(co) and (co)holism.
  • alcoholism is derived from the noun alcohol and the derivational suffix -ism
    • alcohol as "liquor" is the result of a semantic shift from the original meaning, signifying a fine powder
    • alcohol as fine powder is a borrowing from the Arabic al-kuhul, the fine metallic powder
    • al-kuhul is derived from the root kuhul and the definite inflectional prefix al-
  • chocolate is borrowed from Nahuatl xococlatl
    • xococlatl is a compound of two Nahuatl words, xococ, bitter and atl, water. Clearly, there has been a semantic shift somewhere along the way here as well.

[edit] Chemistry

Chocolate contains a variety of substances, several of which are addictive (such as caffeine--in trace quantities). These include:

[edit] Pleasure of consuming

Part of the pleasure of eating chocolate is due to the fact that its melting point is slightly below human body temperature, therefore melting in the mouth.

[edit] Possible effects

Chocoholism, if not maintained, may result in over-consumption of chocolate, which may cause high blood-sugar levels and possibly obesity.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

This is an extract from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
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