Etymologically
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cola

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkəʊ.lə/[1]
  • US: /ˈkoʊlə/[1]

Etymology

The name of the tree and nut, also spelled kola, is a Latinized form of a West African name:[2][3] the OED takes it borrowed from Italian cola and its source borrowed from Portuguese cola (1575), which come from a West African language;[4] it compares a-kɔla (“the seed”) and kola.[4] Etymonline and Barnhart also compare kolo,[2][5] and Collins thinks the word is probably a variant of the Mandingo name.[6] The Portuguese evidence comes from reports on the kingdoms of Ndongo and Kongo.[4] The botanical genus is named Cola in Modern Latin.[7] As the name of a soft drink, cola is a shortening of Coca-Cola, invented in 1886, whose name joins coca and kola, two of its original ingredients;[4][2] according to the OED the short form first appeared in the names of drinks made by Coca-Cola's competitors.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The tree or its seed: the OED's first example, under the spelling kola, is from 1597, in Abraham Hartwell's translation of a Portuguese account of the kingdom of Congo, where it means the fruit of an unidentified African tree.[4] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date cola for the genus of West African trees to 1795,[2][3] and the Shorter Oxford dates the word to the early 17th century.[8]

Semantic evolution

The seed of the tree contains much caffeine,[2][6] which made it an ingredient of tonic drinks in the late 19th century.[4][2] A list published in 1900 by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union names dozens of drinks found to contain caffeine and coca, many of them with -cola or -kola names.[2] From these trade names, above all Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, cola came to mean any sweet, brown, fizzy drink of the kind:[8][2] the OED's first example is from an advertisement of 1903,[4] and Etymonline dates it to 1919.[2] The spelling kola for the drink probably reflects a renewed link with the name of the nut.[4] In American drug slang cola has been used for cocaine, a play on coke.[9]

Timeline

  • 1575 – Portuguese cola, the nut.[4]
  • 1597 – kola, the fruit of an African tree.[4]
  • 1795 – the genus of West African trees.[2][3]
  • 1830 – the spelling kola.[2][5]
  • 1868 – the tree.[4]
  • 1886 – Coca-Cola.[4]
  • 1903 – a carbonated cola-flavoured drink.[4]
  • 1984 – (US drug slang) cocaine.[9]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A sweet, brown, fizzy soft drink flavoured with extract of cola nuts or a similar flavouring: He ordered a burger and a large cola.
  2. Either of two West African trees of the genus Cola, grown in the tropics for their seeds.
  3. The seed of such a tree, the kola nut, which contains caffeine.
  • kola
  • Coca-Cola
  • coke
  • coca

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com