cockle
/ˈkɑk(ə)l/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.34 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "His wife, a small woman who walked always on high heels, borrowed Gerhardie's primus stove several times a day to cook her husband gargantuan meals of cockles, mussels, snails, and other such unpalatables."
- "But cockle, spurge, according to their law / Might propagate their kind, with none to awe, / You'd think; a burr had been a treasure trove."
- "Israel Wilde arrived last, his ankle swollen and already berry-blue after cockling at the top of Hatherself Scout."
Etymology
From Middle English cokel, cokkel, kokkel, cocle, of uncertain origin. Perhaps a diminutive of Middle English cokke, cok (“cockle”), from Old English cocc (found in sǣcocc (“cockle”)) + -le; or perhaps from Old French coquille, from Vulgar Latin *cocchilia, from conchylia, from Ancient Greek κογχύλιον (konkhúlion), diminutive of κογχύλη (konkhúlē, “mussel”), of Pre-Greek substrate origin.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkɑk(ə)l/
- British English: /ˈkɒkl̩/
Usage
- British usage
- Transitive verb
- Slang
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Medicine.