cochineal: [16] Cochineal ‘red dye’ comes via French cochenille from Old Spanish cochinilla, a term applied both to the dye and to the small insect related to the mealybugs, from whose dried body it is made. It is generally thought to be a derivative of Latin coccinus ‘scarlet’, which in turn came from Greek kokkinos, a derivative of kókos, the Greek term for the cochineal insect (the word originally meant ‘berry, seed’ – it was applied to various bacteria, such as streptococcus and staphylococcus, because of their spherical seedlike shape – and it was thought in ancient times that the dried body of the insect was a berry). => staphylococcus, streptococcus