Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Cocoa palm
{ ,
Co′coa
(kō′kō̍)
, Noun.
Co′coa palmˊ
(kō′kō̍ pämˊ)
} [Sp. & Pg.
coco
cocoanut, in Sp. also, cocoa palm. The Portuguese name is said to have been given from the monkeylike face at the base of the nut, fr. Pg. coco
a bugbear, an ugly mask to frighten children. Cf., however, Gr. κοῦκι
the cocoa palm and its fruit, κόϊξ
, κόϊκος
, a kind of Egyptian palm.] (Bot.)
A tall palm tree producing the cocoanut (
Cocos nucifera
) as its fruit. It grows in nearly all tropical countries, attaining a height of sixty or eighty feet. The trunk is without branches, and has a tuft of leaves at the top, each being fifteen or twenty feet in length, and at the base of these the nuts hang in clusters; the cocoanut tree. It is widely planted throughout the tropics, and in some locations as an ornamental tree.