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cock·le¹

(kŏkəl)

1. Any of various chiefly marine bivalve mollusks of the family Cardiidae, having rounded or heart-shaped shells with radiating ribs.

2. The shell of a cockle.

3. A wrinkle; a pucker.

4. Nautical A cockleshell.

intr. & tr.v. cock·led, cock·ling, cock·les

To become or cause to become wrinkled or puckered.

Idiom:

cockles of (one's) heart

One's innermost feelings: The valentine warmed the cockles of my heart.

[Middle English cokel, from Old French coquille, shell, from Vulgar Latin *cochillia, from Latin conchyllium, from Greek konkhulion, diminutive of konkhē, mussel.]

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cockle1

rough cockle

Acanthocardia tuberculata

cock·le²

(kŏkəl)

Any of several weedy plants, especially the corn cockle.

[Middle English cokkel, from Old English coccel, from Medieval Latin *cocculus, diminutive of Latin coccus, kermes berry, from Greek kokkos.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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