coca

Where does the word "coca" come from? It comes from Quechua kuka, passing through Spanish before entering English (1700s-1800s).

Coca’s story begins in Quechua: kuka meant “coca plant.” The name for the plant whose leaves are chewed as a mild stimulant. By 1500s-1600s, the word had taken hold in Spanish as coca. The Inca reserved coca for nobility and religious rites. It reached English by 1700s-1800s as coca. Listed as early as 1616 in John Bullokar's 'English Expositor', a dictionary of hard words; chewed by Andean workers to fight altitude sickness and fatigue. Today, coca means a South American shrub whose leaves are chewed as a mild stimulant or processed into cocaine.

1. Stage 1 · Quechua · pre-1500s kuka "coca plant", the name for the plant whose leaves are chewed as a mild stimulant.
2. Stage 2 · Spanish · 1500s-1600s coca "coca plant", the Inca reserved coca for nobility and religious rites.
3. Stage 3 · English · 1700s-1800s coca "the plant whose leaves contain stimulant alkaloids", listed as early as 1616 in John Bullokar's 'English Expositor', a dictionary of hard words; chewed by Andean workers to fight altitude sickness and fatigue.