Etymology

-coccus

-coc·cus

Today it means: Any spherical microorganism. Full definition →

English coccus ← New Latin coccu ← Latin coccum
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The story

  1. Ancient Greekκόκκος (kókkos)
  2. Latincoccum
  3. New Latincoccu
  4. Englishcoccus
  5. English today-coccus

From coccus, a learned borrowing from New Latin coccus, from Latin coccum (“a berry yielding a scarlet dye”), borrowed from Ancient Greek κόκκος (kókkos, “grain, seed, berry”), possibly from Pre-Greek.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.