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Coconut

2 stages from Portuguese to English.

Today it means the large hard-shelled seed of the coconut palm

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

Portuguese · 1490s

"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

English · 1610s

"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

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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.