cocoa
/ˈkəʊkəʊ
/noun [mass noun]
1A powder made from roasted and ground cacao seeds.To make the pastry, sift together the flour, cocoa, salt and icing sugar....
- In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cocoa and salt and stir into chocolate mixture until well blended.
1.1A hot drink made from cocoa powder mixed with milk or water.Sophia bought two hot cocoas from the school cafeteria and the two of them drank them vigorously....
- I swore off ever drinking alcohol, and I prefer drinking tea and cocoa to drinking coffee.
- He stood at a nearby table, selling coffee, tea, cocoa and chocolate bars for a church fund-raiser.
Phrases
I should cocoa (or coco)
Origin
Early 18th century (denoting cacao seed): alteration of cacao.
chocolate from early 17th century:
The first recorded use in English is as a drink made from chocolate; it was a fashionable drink in the 17th and 18th centuries. Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary in 1664: ‘To a Coffee-house, to drink jocolatte, very good.’ The word comes from French chocolat or Spanish chocolate, from Nahuatl (the language spoken by the Aztecs of Mexico) chocolatl ‘food made from cacao seeds’. Cacao (mid 16th century) and cocoa (early 18th century) are basically the same word, also from Nahuatl. Not from Mexico, though, is the expression I should cocoa. It is cockney rhyming slang for ‘I should say so’.