Coke
/koʊk/noun
A carbon-rich solid fuel produced by heating coal in the absence of air, or the common nickname for the illicit drug cocaine.
Did you know?The fuel sense of coke developed from a dialect word for burnt coal or cinders, while the drug sense is a later shortening of cocaine, with no ancient occult origin behind the name itself.
Etymological Timeline
Old English
OE
col
“coal; charcoal”
Middle English
ME
cok
“a piece of charcoal or burnt coal; coke-like fuel”
17th Century
English
coke
“calcined coal used as fuel”
19th Century
English
cocaine
“the alkaloid extracted from coca leaves”
20th Century
English
coke
“slang shortening of cocaine”