Category:Coconut

Co"co*nut` (old spelling - Co"coa*nut`), n.

Defn: The large, hard-shelled nut of the cocoa palm. It yields an agreeable milky liquid and a white meat or albumen much used as food and in making oil.

Co"coa*nut`, n., Co"coa palm` Etym: [Sp. & Pg. coco cocoanut, in Sp. also, cocoa palm. The Portuguese name is said to have been given from the monkeylike face at the base of the nut, fr. Pg. coco a bugbear, an ugly mask to frighten children. Cf., however, Gr. (Bot.)

Defn: A palm tree producing the coconut (old spelling - cocoanut) (Cocos nucifera). It grows in nearly all tropical countries, attaining a height of sixty or eighty feet. The trunk is without branches, and has a tuft of leaves at the top, each being fifteen or twenty feet in length, and at the base of these the nuts hang in clusters; the coconut (old spelling - cocoanut) tree.

cocoa Co"coa, n. Etym: [Corrupted fr. cacao.]

Defn: A preparation made from the seeds of the chocolate tree, and used in making, a beverage; also the beverage made from cocoa or cocoa shells. Cocoa shells, the husks which separate from the cacao seeds in preparing them for use.