coconut

Where does the word "coconut" come from? It comes from Portuguese coco, and was adopted directly into English (1610s).

Coconut’s story begins in Portuguese: coco meant “goblin, grinning head.” A grinning bogeyman of Iberian folklore; Vasco da Gama's sailors, reaching India in 1498, reportedly named the nut for the three holes that look like a face. It reached English by 1610s as coconut. 'coco' plus 'nut'; long misspelled 'cocoa-nut', a confusion with cacao that Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary is often blamed for spreading by running the two entries together. Today, coconut means the large hard-shelled seed of the coconut palm.

1. Stage 1 · Portuguese · 1490s coco "goblin, grinning head", a grinning bogeyman of Iberian folklore; Vasco da Gama's sailors, reaching India in 1498, reportedly named the nut for the three holes that look like a face.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1610s coconut "fruit of the coconut palm", 'coco' plus 'nut'; long misspelled 'cocoa-nut', a confusion with cacao that Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary is often blamed for spreading by running the two entries together.