coco
English edit
Alternative forms edit
- cocoa (now nonstandard)
Etymology edit
From Portuguese/Spanish coco (“grinning face”) (due to the three holes in the shell resembling a human face).[1] Doublet of coque.
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkəʊ.kəʊ/
- (US) enPR: kōʹkō, IPA(key): /ˈkoʊ.koʊ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -əʊkəʊ
- Homophone: cocoa
Noun edit
- Coconut palm.
- 1992, Frances Temple, Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti[1], page 52:
- I turn round and round to see the high mountains, the thick coco trees.
- Coconut, the fruit of the coconut palm.
- 1625, Samuel Purchas, “Their Cocos and other fruits and food, their Trades and trading, Creatures profitable and hurtfull. Of Male their principall Iland. Their Houſes, Candou, Languages, Apparell.”, in Pvrchas his Pilgrimes. In Five Bookes. [...] The Second Part., volume II, London: Printed by William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Rose, →OCLC, page 1643 [sic: 1653]:
- They boyle it alſo, and after dry it and bray it, and of this bran, with egges, hony, milke, and butter of Cocos, they make Florentines, and verie good belly-timber.
- 1813, John Adams, “A Voyage to South America”, in John Pinkerton, editor, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World[2], page 355:
- The coco is a very common fruit, and but little esteemed; […]
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
See also edit
- cocoa (cacao, altered by confusion with coco)
References edit
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “coco”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Amis edit
Etymology edit
From Proto-Austronesian *susu. Compare Indonesian susu, Fijian sucu, Tagalog suso, Tongan huhu and Hawaiian ū.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
coco
References edit
“Entry #”, in 阿美語中部方言辭典 [Dictionary of the Central Dialect of Amis][4] (in Chinese), Taiwan: Council of Indigenous Peoples, 2021
Catalan edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
coco m (plural cocos)
Derived terms edit
Further reading edit
- “coco” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
French edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle French coche, coco, from Italian cocco and Spanish coco, both from Portuguese coco. The fruit was originally referred to by the Spanish equivalent of croque-mitaine (“bogeyman”), due to the spooky face-like appearance of the three dots at the end of the shell, which developed in coco.
As in English, the fruit was originally referred to as coco (in the 16th century), but in the 17th (as in English) it became usual to refer to it as a nut, in the form noix de coco (“coconut”).
Noun edit
coco m (plural cocos)
- Fruit of the coconut palm, also called noix de coco
- a kind of bean
- (slang) Motor fuel
- Synonym: carburant
- (dated) a type of licorice drink, by analogy with coconut milk
Hypernyms edit
- (bean): haricot
Derived terms edit
Etymology 2 edit
Duplication of initial co-, from communiste.
Noun edit
coco m (plural cocos)
Etymology 3 edit
Duplication of initial co-, from cocaïne.
Noun edit
coco f (plural cocos)
Etymology 4 edit
Perhaps by contraction of cocorico (“cock-a-doodle-do”).
Noun edit
coco m (plural cocos)
Etymology 5 edit
Noun edit
coco m or f by sense (plural cocos)
- (informal) friendly, joking term for a friend; pal, mate, buddy
- Salut, coco !
- G’day mate!
- (informal, derogatory) aggressive, disdainful term of address, usually preceded by mon, ma, or mes. Roughly punk or buddy, as in “You wanna try, punk?”, or “Hey buddy, what do you think you’re doing?”
- Toi, mon coco, tu vas passer un sale quart d’heure !
- You, buddy, are going to have a miserable quarter hour!
- Vous ne perdez rien pour attendre, mes cocos !
- You’re not losing anything by waiting, punks!
Further reading edit
- “coco”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Galician edit
Etymology edit
From Latin coccum (“berry; gall; insect; scarlet dye”), from Ancient Greek κόκκος (kókkos, “grain, seed, berry”).[1]
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
coco m (plural cocos)
Derived terms edit
- coco de luz (“glowworm”)
References edit
- “coco” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
- “coco” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
- “coco” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.
Latin edit
Etymology 1 edit
Verb edit
cocō (present infinitive cocere, perfect active coxī, supine coctum); third conjugation (Late Latin)
Descendants edit
- Balkan Romance:
- Italo-Romance:
- Insular Romance:
- North Italian:
- Gallo-Romance:
- Occitano-Romance:
- Ibero-Romance:
- Borrowings:
Etymology 2 edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈko.koː/, [ˈkɔkoː]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈko.ko/, [ˈkɔːko]
Noun edit
cocō
References edit
- ^ Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “cŏquĕre”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 2: C Q K, page 1167
Further reading edit
- “coco”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- coco in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Manchu edit
Romanization edit
coco
- Romanization of ᠴᠣᠴᠣ (coco)
Norman edit
Etymology edit
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.) Compare French coco.
Noun edit
coco m (plural cocos)
Derived terms edit
- cocotchi (“eggcup”)
Portuguese edit
Etymology 1 edit
Probably from Late Latin coccum (“kernel, seed”), from Ancient Greek κόκκος (kókkos). Doublet of coque.
Alternative forms edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
coco m (plural cocos)
- coconut (fruit of coco palm)
- (informal) head
- (informal, vulgar) testicle
- (Brazil, dance) popular dance from Alagoas
- 1957, “Que coco é esse”, performed by Marinês:
- Que coco é esse / Eu já estou com vontade de dançar
- What a coconut dance this is / I'm already in the mood to dance
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
Etymology 2 edit
Learned borrowing from New Latin coccus, from Late Latin coccum, from Ancient Greek κόκκος (kókkos).
Pronunciation edit
- Rhymes: -ɔku
- Hyphenation: co‧co
Noun edit
coco m (plural cocos)
Related terms edit
Etymology 3 edit
Borrowed from Japanese 石 (koku).
Pronunciation edit
- Rhymes: -ɔku
- Hyphenation: co‧co
Noun edit
coco m (plural cocos)
References edit
- “coconut”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
Further reading edit
- “coco” in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2024.
- “coco” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.
Spanish edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From sense 2 (“skull, head”), because of the resemblance of the fruit to a grinning face.
Noun edit
coco m (plural cocos)
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
Etymology 2 edit
Borrowed from Portuguese côco (“bogeyman, grinning face”), probably from Latin coccum (“kernel, seed”).
Alternative forms edit
Noun edit
coco m (plural cocos)
- (folklore) bogeyman
- Synonym: hombre del saco
- Duérmete niño, duérmete ya… que viene el coco y te comerá.
- Sleep child, sleep now… lest the bogeyman come and eat you.
- (colloquial) brain; head
Etymology 3 edit
Noun edit
coco m (plural cocos)
- (entomology) weevil
- Synonym: gorgojo
- (bacteriology) coccus
- Synonym: micrococo
- (Dominican Republic) Wood stork (Mycteria americana)
Derived terms edit
Further reading edit
- “coco”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
- Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN