acacia ‘a kind of tree with sharp thorns’
Lexical development traced from the Tamil root:
M.E. acassia, acatia, accacee < Lat. acacia < Gk. ὰκaκίa ‘the thorny Egyptian tree’ < Gk. akḗ ‘point’ < probably from some Egyptian word < ak < Tamil akku ‘sharpness’
Other meanings: any of numerous plants included or formerly included in the leguminous genus Acacia; Medicine: a gum produced by various African acacia trees used in medicine.