- crocodile (n.)
- 1560s, restored spelling of Middle English cokedrille, kokedrille (c. 1300), from Medieval Latin cocodrillus, from Latin crocodilus, from Greek krokodilos, word applied by Herodotus to the crocodile of the Nile, apparently due to its basking habits, from kroke "pebbles" + drilos "worm." The crocodile tears story was in English from at least c. 1400.
