Coconut story part II - The origin of Thai words for coconut

Last time, I wrote a topic about the root of Thai word meaning clock (nalika) that related to the word meaning coconut. This time, I’ll talk about the root of Thai word for coconut.

Thai word for Coconut can pronounce as “Ma-Prao”. This word is originally derived from the Malayayan word Koppara “the coconut meat”. After adaptation, the koppara is come to Prao for easily pronunciation in Thai then adding the prefix Ma (derived from “Marg” means fruits in Thai language) to become Ma-Prao in this present. The word Koppara is also believe that is the root for word Copra that used to called the dried coconut meat, too. 

The word Koppara sounds like Kallapa, which is the sacred tree of anything that one can wish for, growing in the era of Metteya the next Buddha. This might come from the numerous usefulness of coconut tree, so Indian people respect the coconut and give it the Kallapa name.

The norm to called coconut as Kallapa was passing through Malaysia and Indonesia continent. They called this plant as Kalapa. The name Kalapa is also given to the island in Indonesia, which is rich of coconut in its continent (this island is currently Jakarta). In Thailand, Kalapa is known as the city famous in imported high-quality mirror, hat and rose apple. The word calling coconut shell in Thai “Kala” might be related to the Kalapa word.

"Kala" - or coconut shell. The three "eyes" make it looks more like the real human skull. 

Moreover, another word called the coconut shell in Thai is “Ka-loag”, which also means “skull” in Thai. This way of naming is identical to the root word of coconut, which originally derived from Spansh word “coco” means “skull”. How wonder that two isolated countries have the similar way to name a plant!