ORIGIN OF THE NAME COCO, 267 
dez refers, whether correctly or not, to Strabo,’ which indicates that 
he would not have avoided mention of any other Greek writers, while’ 
Acosta prefaces his discussion of the cocoanut by the following remark: 
And it is an admirable thing to see so many different formes, tastes, and effects 
unknowne, whereof we did never hear speake before the discoverie of the Indies. 
And whereof Plinie himselfe, Dioscorides and Theophrastus (yea, the most curious), 
had no knowledge, notwithstanding all their search and dilligence. 
Moreover, it seems probable that the word coco as a lineal descend- 
ant from the Latin cocews was in use among the Spaniards in its original 
sense of a seed, nut, or fruit, and the seeds of Cocculus or India ber- 
ries are still called in Spanish cocas de Levante in much the same way 
as Hernandez referred to cochineal as **Cocco Indico.” Both Oviedo 
and Acosta used the word in a wide generic sense for the seeds of 
several palms, and it is still applied to the seeds of smaller palms which 
much resemble those of Cocculus and are strung for rosaries. Acosta 
also refers to the seeds of a palm of Chili (Jubaea) as cogu//os (modern 
coquitos), and describes the large fruits of Bertholletia (Brazil nut) or 
other Lecythidaceae as *t another kinde of cocos” containing almonds, 
We have thus apparently another case like those of Mimosa and Cereus,’ 
where ordinary Spanish words adopted into botanical nomenclature 
have been tortured at great length to fit the most improbable theories 
of classical Latin, Greek, or even more ancient derivations. But 
though already possessed by the Spaniards, the word coco was by no 
means new to America. Eighteen of the names of plants in the ‘* His- 
toria” of Hernandez begin with coco and twenty-eight with caca, which 
seem to have been used interchangeably. Thus Dampier and Cockburn 
frequently refer to cacao (Theobroma) as *Scoco,” ** coco-nuts,” and 
‘*cocoa.” The difficulty which we still have in attempting to restrict 
cacao to Theobroma, coca to Erythroxylon, cocog to Cocos, and coco to 
Colocasia may be but a legacy from the popularity of these syllables 
in the plant names of American aboriginal tribes. However curious 
such a coincidence between the Spanish and American word coco may 
seem to us, it appears to have produced no such effect upon Hernandez, 
even when explaining the name of the plant cocoyatic® on the ground 
that the leaves were similar to those of palms, and, although not 
' Hernandey’ se hapter on . the cocoanut opens with the following caption and first 
sentence: 
“De Nucis Indicae, et Coeci vocati arbore. Nux Indica, quam vulgus Indorum Maron, 
Strabo vero (ut quida volut) Palmam vocat, a Mexicensibus Coyolli, a Lusitanis ob 
oculos quosdam Cercopitheci similes Coccum, a vulgo vero Persarum, et Arabum 
nuncupatur Harel.’’ 
2 “Tos cardones que los cripstianos Ilaman cirios . . .’’ Oviedo, vol. 1, p. 311. 
3““Cocoyatic, seu herba Palmae simili.—The herb cocoyatic, which the people of Micho- 
. ) ‘ ’ 
acan call Xahuique, has the leaves of Porrum or of a small palm, whence the name.”’ 
‘Nova Plantarum, Animalium et mineralium Mexicanorum.’’ Hernandez, p. 144 
(Romae, 1651). 
3508—Vol. 7, No 
