Mate (beverage) - Name

Name

Both the spellings "mate" and "maté" are used in English. The acute accent on the final letter is likely added as a hyperforeignism, and serves to indicate that the word and its pronunciation are distinct from the common English word "mate". But, the Yerba Mate Association of the Americas states that it is always incorrect to accent the second syllable, since this creates confusion with an unrelated Spanish word for killing. ("maté" literally means "I killed" in Spanish).

In Brazil, traditionally prepared mate is known as chimarrão, although the word mate and the expression "mate amargo" (bitter mate) are also used in Argentina and Uruguay. The Spanish cimarrón means "rough", "brute", or "barbarian", but is most widely understood to mean "feral", and is used in almost all of Latin America for domesticated animals that have become wild. The word was then used by the people who colonized the region of the Río de la Plata to describe the natives' rough and sour drink, drunk with no other ingredient to soften the taste.