coco palm
- noun
- /ˈkoʊkoʊ pɑːlm/
- He walked up a coco palm, bent double, the afflicted foot and the good one against the trunk and his hands on the far side.
Examples
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The coco palm swayed gently in the tropical breeze, its coconuts swaying above.
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In many tropical resorts, you will find coco palms lining the sandy beaches.
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The gardener planted several coco palms to provide shade and fresh coconuts for the guests.
Synonyms
A tall tropical tree with one trunk and large fan-shaped leaves
A tall tree with one straight trunk and big leaves at the top
A tall tropical palm tree that grows large hard fruits
A tall tropical palm that grows coconuts near the coast
A tall palm tree that grows a large round fruit with a hard shell in tropical places
A tall tropical palm tree that grows coconuts
A tall tropical palm tree that grows coconuts
A tall tropical palm tree that produces coconuts
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'coco palm' denotes a palm that produces coconuts, a meaning that is directly and compositionally derived from 'coco' (coconut-producing palm/tree) + 'palm' (tropical tree). This noun–noun combination follows a simple, cross-linguistically common compounding pattern, so an average B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the intended referent. Even if 'coco palm' is a less frequent variant of 'coconut palm', the semantics remain transparent.
Etymology
Coco palm comes from the word coco, an old Portuguese word for 'head' or 'face' because the three marks on a coconut look like a simple face, and palm just means the tree. That's why the name coco palm refers to the palm tree that produces coconuts.