Meaning

noun a plant fiber from the kapok tree; used for stuffing and insulation

noun massive tropical tree with deep ridges on its massive trunk and bearing large pods of seeds covered with silky floss; source of the silky kapok fiber

originBorrowed from Malay kapuk (“silky fibre from the silk-cotton tree; Ceiba pentandra”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0