Conch
/kɒŋk/noun
A marine mollusk with a spiral shell, or the shell itself.
Did you know?The word ultimately comes from a Greek word for a shell, and its history also gave English the anatomical term for the ear’s concha, because the outer ear was imagined as a little shell.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ḱem-
“to bend, curve”
Ancient Greek
Greek
κόγχος (kónkhos)
“a shell or mussel; also a small shell-like object”
Latin
Latin
concha
“a shell, mussel, or hollow shell-like vessel”
Old French
Old French
conque
“a shell; a conch shell”
Middle English
English
conche / conch
“a shell, especially the spiral shell of a sea snail”
Modern English
English
conch
“a large spiral marine shell or the mollusk that makes it”