Cocoon

How to spell cocoon

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cocoon

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cocoon mean?

1. nounThe protective silky case that a caterpillar or other insect larva spins around itself while it transforms.
2. verbTo wrap or envelop someone or something in a soft, sheltering layer, or to retreat into cosy seclusion.

Cocoon in a sentence

• noun

  The silkworm spun a glossy cocoon on the mulberry branch.

• verb

  On cold nights she likes to cocoon herself in a thick duvet.

• noun

  The children watched the moth emerge from its cocoon in the jar.

• verb

  The nurses like to cocoon each newborn in a warm blanket.

Where does cocoon come from?

Language of origin: French

Cocoon came into English in the early 1700s from the French cocon, the name for the silky case a caterpillar spins around itself. The French word in turn grew out of the Provencal (Occitan) coucoun, meaning a shell or an eggshell, which was a diminutive of coca, simply 'shell'. The underlying idea is therefore a little protective shell, which fits the silk pod perfectly. From the literal insect sense English later developed the figurative use of a cocoon as any soft, sheltering wrapping, and by the twentieth century the verb 'to cocoon' described retreating into safe, cosy seclusion. The spelling trap is real: there is only a single c at the front, followed by the doubled o of -coon, so the temptation to write a second c (as in 'raccoon') should be resisted.

How the word is built

• cocoon (from Provencal coucoun: shell, eggshell), a single root borrowed whole; note one c then -coon