Word: coconut Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From coco + nut. In reference to assimilated Hispanic or black people, derived from the fruit's exotic origins. The slur originates from the idea that one is "brown on the outside, white on the inside". In reference to Polynesians, from the ubiquity of coconut palms in the area. Pronunciation: /ˈkəʊ.kə.nʌt/, [ˈkʰəʊ̯.kə.nʌt], [ˈkʰəʊ̯.kə.nɐt], /ˈkoʊ.kəˌnʌt/, [ˈkʰoʊ̯.kəˌnʌt] 1. A fruit of the coconut palm (not a true nut), Cocos nucifera, having a fibrous husk surrounding a large seed. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The Coco-nut Trees grow by the Sea, on the Weſtern ſide in great Groves, 3 or 4 Miles in length, and a Mile or two broad. This tree is in ſhape like the Cabbage-tree, and at a diſtance they are not to be known each from other, only the Coco-nut Tree is fuller of Branches ; but the Cabbage-tree generally is much higher, tho' the Coco-nut Trees in ſome places are very high. 2. A hard-shelled seed of this fruit, having white flesh and a fluid-filled central cavity. Labels: countable, uncountable 3. The edible white flesh of this fruit. Labels: uncountable 4. The coconut palm. Labels: countable, uncountable 5. A member of any of various dark-skinned ethnic groups (e.g. Hispanic, South Asian, or black) who is considered to have overly assimilated to white culture: Labels: US, countable, derogatory, ethnic, slur, uncountable Example: After that I was regarded as comic. I became a ‘coconut’—someone brown on the outside, white on the inside. I was the bleached academic—more white than the anglo professors. In my classes several students glared at me, clearly seeing in me the person they feared ever becoming. Who was I, after all, but some comic Queequeg, holding close to my breast a reliquary containing the white powder of a dead European civilization? 6. A member of any of various dark-skinned ethnic groups (e.g. Hispanic, South Asian, or black) who is considered to have overly assimilated to white culture: Labels: Australia, Kenya, South-Africa, countable, derogatory, ethnic, slur, uncountable Example: Their convictions challenged those critics who dismissed John Githongo’s anti-corruption efforts as the naïve projection of inappropriate ‘mzungu’ values onto an African nation where they were doomed to fail. If John was a ‘coconut’, he certainly wasn’t the only coconut in Kenya. Example: Your mum is a white whore, you coconut. 7. A member of any of various dark-skinned ethnic groups (e.g. Hispanic, South Asian, or black) who is considered to have overly assimilated to white culture: Labels: Singapore, countable, derogatory, ethnic, slur, uncountable 8. A member of any of various dark-skinned ethnic groups (e.g. Hispanic, South Asian, or black) who is considered to have overly assimilated to white culture: Labels: Malaysia, countable, derogatory, ethnic, slur, uncountable 9. A Pacific islander. Labels: New-Zealand, countable, derogatory, ethnic, slur, uncountable 10. A female breast. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable Example: He compliments her erect posture and says her breasts look like big clusters of grapes hanging off a palm tree. You would expect him to say merely that he likes her big coconuts. 11. The human head. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable Example: [Ashley J. Williams shoots a zombified version of the Winter Soldier in the head.] Dazzler: Oh my God...thank you! I-i-is he-- Ashley J. Williams: A double-barrel boomstick blast straight through the coconut? Trust me, babe--he's not comin' back from that one. Example: 'How unfortunate.' 'Yes. It's rather causing him to go off his coconut. He's met a girl, you see. A peach.'