Kokkos

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small, roundish fruit or grain, often used in culinary contexts, such as the seeds of certain plants
2. Referring to spherical objects or items that resemble small balls, particularly in a botanical or gastronomic context
3. A term often employed in agriculture to denote particular edible seeds or fruits that are characterized by their rounded shape

Etymology: Ancient Greek writers used "kókkos" for any small round seed or berry. The same term was also applied to the tiny insects that lived on the kermes oak. Because those insects looked like berries, the name passed to the scarlet dye made from them, so one word could mean both a seed and a source of red colour. From Greek, the term entered Latin as "coccum" and "coccus," and it survives in the vocabulary of science. Bacteriologists use "coccus" for round-shaped bacteria, and botanists use it for the segments of certain dry fruits, such as those of spurge plants, that split apart when ripe. The same root lies behind "cochineal," the red dye made from a different insect that the Spanish found in Mexico. Its name comes from Spanish "cochinilla," which traces back to Latin "coccinus," meaning scarlet. A Greek word for a berry therefore sits behind a colour name used around the world.

Synonyms: coccus, bacterium, sphere-shaped bacteria