coke

See also: Coke and cökə

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəʊk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /koʊk/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /koʉk/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊk

Etymology 1

The origin is not certain. The OED says it is first attested in 1669. The MED has an earlier attestation in the related sense of "charcoal" in 1430: Middle English coke. This may be the same word as colk (“core”) (perhaps from the notion that coke is the core of the material left after it burning), from Old English *colc (“hole, well”), from Proto-West Germanic *kolk, from Proto-Germanic *kulukaz (“a hollow, depression”), from Proto-Indo-European *g(ʷ)el- (“to swallow, devour; gullet”). If so, cognate with Saterland Frisian Kolk (“maelstrom, depression, whirlpool”), West Frisian kolk (“maelstrom, whirlpool”), Dutch kolk (“maelstrom, vortex, whirlpool”), German Kolk (“pothole”).

Alternative forms

• coak (obsolete)

Noun

coke (uncountable)

1. (uncountable) Solid residue from roasting coal in a coke oven; used principally as a fuel and in the production of steel and formerly as a domestic fuel.

   The plant should produce approximately 550,000 tons of screened blast furnace coke per year.

   • 1963, “The Coal Industry in Mainland China Since 1949”, in The Geographical Journal‎^[1], volume 129, number 3, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 333:

     At Ho-pi (Hopi) in northern Honan two modern shafts were under construction in 1957-8; but the coal from Ho-pi is expected to be of rather poor quality and so will be mixed with rich coal from P'ing-ting-shan (Pingtingshan) in central Honan for coke making.

Derived terms

• biocoke
• coke breeze
• cokeless
• cokelike
• cokeman
• coke oven gas
• coker
• cokery
• cokeworks
• coky
• petroleum coke (pet coke)
• semicoke (semi-coke)

Related terms

• coking coal

Descendants

• → Portuguese: coque
• → Swedish: koks (< cokes)

Translations

coal product

• Bulgarian: кокс m (koks)
• Catalan: carbó de coc m, coc (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 焦炭 (zh) (jiāotàn)

• Czech: koks (cs) m
• Danish: koks n or c
• Dutch: cokes (nl) f pl
• Estonian: koks (et)
• Faroese: koks n
• Finnish: koksi (fi)
• French: charbon (fr), coke (fr) m
• German: Koks (de) m
• Greek: κοκ (el) n (kok)
• Icelandic: koks (is) n
• Ido: koko (io)
• Irish: cóc m
• Italian: coke (it) m
• Japanese: コークス (ja) (kōkusu), 骸炭 (ja) (がいたん, gaitan)
• Korean: 코크스 (kokeuseu), 골탄(骨炭) (goltan), 해탄(骸炭) (haetan)
• Lithuanian: koksas m
• Norwegian: koks m
• Ottoman Turkish: كومور (kömür)
• Polish: koks (pl) m
• Portuguese: coque (pt) m
• Romanian: cocs (ro) n
• Russian: кокс (ru) m (koks)
• Slovak: koks (sk) m
• Slovene: koks (sl) m
• Spanish: coque (es) m, cok m
• Swedish: koks (sv) n
• Welsh: golosg m, llosglo m
• Yiddish: קאָקס m (koks)
• Zazaki: komır

Verb

coke (third-person singular simple present cokes, present participle coking, simple past and past participle coked)

1. (transitive) To produce coke from coal.
2. (intransitive) To turn into coke.
3. (especially automotive, astronautics) To add deleterious carbon deposits as a byproduct of combustion.

   In kerolox engines, some of the fuel flow cokes in the engine's cooling passages over time, requiring thorough cleaning prior to reuse.

Derived terms

• coking
• coking coal
• decoke
• decoking

Translations

to produce coke

• Finnish: koksata (fi), koksittaa (fi)
• German: koken (de)
• Lithuanian: koksuoti
• Polish: koksować (pl)
• Ukrainian: коксувати impf (koksuvaty)
• Yiddish: קאָקסירן (koksirn)

to turn into coke

• Bulgarian: коксувам (koksuvam)
• Finnish: koksautua
• German: verkoken (de)
• Polish: koksować (pl)
• Ukrainian: коксувати impf (koksuvaty)
• Yiddish: קאָקסירן זיך (koksirn zikh)

Etymology 2

Originated circa 1908 in American English as a clipping of cocaine.

Noun

coke (uncountable)

2. (informal, slang, uncountable) Cocaine.

Derived terms

• coke dick
• coked up
• cokehead (coke head)
• coke nose
• coke whore

Translations

short for cocaine

• Danish: coke (da) c
• Estonian: koka
• Finnish: koka (fi), spägä, keula (fi), koksu (fi)
• French: coke (fr) f, coca (fr) f
• German: Koks (de) n or m
• Greek: κόκα (el) f (kóka)
• Italian: coca (it) f
• Lithuanian: koksas m
• Polish: koka (pl) f
• Portuguese: coca (pt) f
• Russian: кокс (ru) m (koks), ко́кос (ru) m (kókos), ко́ка (ru) f (kóka)
• Spanish: coca (es) f
• Swedish: kola (sv), koks (sv), snö (sv)

See also

• coca

Etymology 3

1909, from the name of the American company Coca-Cola and the beverage it produced; the drink was named for two of its original ingredients, coca leaves and cola nut.

Noun

coke (plural cokes)

1. (uncountable, informal) Alternative letter-case form of Coke (cola-based soft drink, especially Coca-Cola).
2. (countable, informal) Alternative letter-case form of Coke (a serving of cola-based soft drink, especially Coca-Cola).
4. (US, chiefly Southern US, New Mexico, informal) Alternative letter-case form of Coke (any soft drink, regardless of type).

Synonyms

• (soft drink): see the list at soda

Derived terms

• coke bottle (coke-bottle)
• coke float

Translations

Coke — see Coke

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025), “coke”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Derived terms

• go and eat coke

Albanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡sɔkɛ/

Verb

coke

1. second-person singular aorist indicative of cok (“to touch lightly”)

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /koːk/
• Hyphenation: coke
• Rhymes: -oːk
• Homophone: kook

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English coke.

Noun

coke m (plural cokes, no diminutive)

1. (chiefly in the plural) coke (type of processed carbon used as fuel)

Usage notes

The singular is less common than the plural form in Dutch, which may also be used like an uncountable singular.

Etymology 2

Unadapted borrowing from English coke.

Noun

coke m (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. (slang) synonym of cocaïne

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔk/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English coke (“residue from roasting in a coal oven”).

Noun

coke m (plural cokes)

1. coke (form of carbon)

Derived terms

• cokerie

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English coke (“cocaine”).

Noun

coke f (plural cokes)

1. coke (cocaine)

   Synonym: cocaïne

Further reading

• “coke”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Noun

coke m (invariable)

1. coke (form of carbon)

Anagrams

• ceko

Middle English

Noun

coke

1. alternative form of colk

Tagalog

Alternative forms

• kok — proscribed

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English Coke, clipping of Coca-Cola.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈkowk/ [ˈkoʊ̯k], /ˈkok/ [ˈkok̚]
• Rhymes: -owk, -ok
• Syllabification: coke

Noun

coke (Baybayin spelling ᜃᜓᜏ᜔ᜃ᜔ or ᜃᜓᜃ᜔)

1. Cola (cola-based soft drink, especially Coca-Cola)