词汇 | coconut |
词源 | coconut; copra. Safe in its buoyant, waterproof pod, the co- conut sailed the high seas from southern Asia in prehistoric times and was propagated and cultivated throughout tropical regions. But it wasn’t given its present name until the late 15th century, when Portuguese explorers came upon it in the Indian Ocean islands and fancied that the little indentations at the base of the nut looked like eyes. Thinking that these three “eyes” gave the nut the look of a grinning face, they named it the coco- nut, coco being the Portuguese word for “a grinning face.” The nut deserves a better appellation, having been “the fruit of life” for ages, providing people with food, drink, oil, medicines, fuel, and even bowls, not to mention the many uses of the 60- to 100-foot tree it grows on. Copra, important to the plot of many a South Sea tale, is the dried meat of coconuts that oil is pressed from, and coconut itself is slang for “a head,” which takes the word back to its origins. Copra derives from the Hindu Rhopra for coconut. |
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