Cocoa

{ Co″coa (kō″kō̍), n., Co″coa palm′ (päm′) } [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. κου̑κι the cocoa palm and its fruit, κόϊξ, κόϊκοσ, a kind of Egyptian palm.] (Bot.) A palm tree producing the cocoanut (Cocos nucifera). 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.