cocoanut

English

Etymology

From cocoa (“coco”) +‎ nut.

Noun

cocoanut (plural cocoanuts)

1. Archaic spelling of coconut.
   • 1882, De Robigne Mortimer Bennett, A Truth Seeker Around the World: From Bombay to Hong Kong, D. M. Bennett, page 371:

     On our return we stopped at Mr. Wijeysakera's home, quaffed the juice of King Cocoanut, looked through his extensive grounds, and saw several kinds of palm, the breadfruit-tree, the jackfruit-tree, the nux-vomica-tree, pimento or allspice shrub, nutmeg-tree, pineapples of different varieties.

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 127:

     The Gulnare brought us a few comforts in the shape of fresh provisions, fruits and curry stuffs, for which the Malayan Archipelago is famous, and with her came a supply of cocoanuts, which would have fully stocked an average plantation.

   • 1895 November, Rudyard Kipling, “How Fear Came”, in The Second Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 9:

     ‘Nay, I meant no harm, Baloo; but only that thou art, as it were, like the cocoanut in the husk, and I am the same cocoanut all naked.

   • 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 460:

     Oranges, cocoanuts and alligator pears lay in neat piles on little tables.

References

• “cocoanut”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.