Coker

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A worker or device that converts coal into coke through controlled heating in a furnace ; something that undergoes or facilitates the coking process
2. An operator who manages the carbonization of coal to produce coke ; a substance or apparatus capable of being coked or generating coke
3. A person employed in coke production ; anything that cokes or functions as a source of coke in industrial processing

Etymology: "Coker" is a clipped form of "cokernel," a word for the nut of the coconut palm, and the clipping is the part of the story that does the work here. "Cokernel" itself is a compound of "coke," an old English word for a fool or simpleton, and "kernel," the seed or core of a fruit. The joke is that the coconut's hard interior was once imagined as a foolish kernel, though the linking of those two parts is ultimately what the name rests on. The shorter form, "coker," takes the first half of that compound and drops the rest, so the word now stands on its own, as a common clipping of "cokernel" used in running speech. Its origin in the "coke" element is what connects it to a broader family of words built on that same root.