Co"coa (?), n., Co"coa palm` (?)
[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. the cocoa palm and its fruit, , , a kind of Egyptian palm.] Bot.
A palm tree producing the 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 cocoanut tree.
© Webster 1913.
Co"coa, n. [Corrupted fr. cacao.]
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.
© Webster 1913.