co|ca

co|ca «KOH kuh», noun.

1. a tropical shrub or small tree growing in South America and also in Java and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), whose dried leaves are used to make cocaine and other alkaloids.

2. its dried leaves, often chewed by the natives for their stimulant properties: »

The use of coca in Peru…is said to have originated with the Incas (Lindley and Moore).

╂[< Spanish coca < Quechua cuca]