Etymologically
Log in

coca

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 03:14. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkəʊ.kə/[1]
  • US: /ˈkoʊ.kə/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish coca,[2][3][4][5] from Quechua kúka,[3][5][6][7] also written cuca.[4][8] G. de la Vega, quoted by the OED and Skeat, wrote that the Indians called the plant cuca and the Spaniards coca.[2][9] Etymonline thinks the Quechua word perhaps comes ultimately from the related language Aymara, and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English give Aymara or Quechua as the source.[4][7][10] Skeat notes that it is distinct from both cocoa and cacao.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The South American shrub whose leaves are chewed as a stimulant: 1577 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster,[11][5] the 1570s in Etymonline.[4] The OED's first quotation is from Bullokar's English Expositor (1616),[2] and Dictionary.com dates it to 1610–20.[12]

Semantic evolution

The name of the shrub was soon applied to its dried leaves, which the OED notes had been chewed in the Andes from time immemorial.[2][6] The alkaloid extracted from them was named cocaine, with the chemical suffix -ine.[8][13][9]

Timeline

  • 1577 – the South American coca shrub.[11][5]
  • 1616 – the OED's first quotation, in Bullokar.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A South American shrub of the genus Erythroxylum, native to the Andes.[6][5][7]
  2. The dried leaves of this shrub, which contain cocaine and are chewed as a stimulant.[6][5][7]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray