Fwd: Ouakaka or Ouakalke

[Joel S. Berson]

Thanks, Doug.  Another correspondent has come up with a similar
description -- although he didn't mention the city.

Joel

At 1/1/2010 01:21 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>Can anyone cast further light on this?  "Wakaka
>>Powder"?  (Andrew Brown wrote that the usual
>>suspects have been rounded up, and it doesn't seem to be in the OED.)
>--
>
>According to my brief G-books browse, wakaka (also wacaca, ouacaca,
>houacaca, etc.) [des Indes etc.] was a preparation used as an appetite
>stimulant and aphrodisiac, composed of sugar, cacao, vanilla, cinnamon,
>sometimes ambergris etc.
>
>Some recipes apparently included annatto (achiote, roucou, orlean, etc.)
>... which I think might suggest a connection of the name with the
>Mexican city-name Oaxaca (in the vicinity of which the annatto-chocolate
>drink tascalate is popular, I think).
>
>-- Doug Wilson
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org