a·corn

(ā′kôrn′, ā′kərn)

The fruit of an oak, consisting of a single-seeded, thick-walled nut set in a woody, cuplike base.

[Middle English akorn, from Old English æcern.]

Word History: A thoughtful glance at the word acorn might produce the surmise that it is made up of oak (from Old English āc) and corn, especially if we think of corn in its sense of "a kernel or seed of a plant," as in peppercorn. The fact that others thought the word was so constituted partly accounts for the present form acorn. Here we see the workings of the process of linguistic change known as folk etymology, an alteration in form of a word or phrase so that it resembles a more familiar term mistakenly regarded as analogous. Acorn actually goes back to Old English æcern, "acorn," which in turn goes back to the Indo-European root *ōg-, meaning "fruit, berry."

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

acorn

(ˈeɪkɔːn)

(Botany) the fruit of an oak tree, consisting of a smooth thick-walled nut in a woody scaly cuplike base

[C16: a variant (through influence of corn) of Old English æcern the fruit of a tree, acorn; related to Gothic akran fruit, yield]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

a•corn

(ˈeɪ kɔrn, ˈeɪ kərn)

n.

the typically ovoid fruit or nut of an oak, enclosed at the base by a cupule.

[before 1000; Middle English acorne (influenced by corn¹), akern, Old English æcern, æcren mast, c. Middle High German ackeran acorn, Old Norse akarn fruit of wild trees, Gothic akran fruit, yield]

a′corned, adj.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

acorn - fruit of the oak tree: a smooth thin-walled nut in a woody cup-shaped base

acorn cup, cupule - cup-shaped structure of hardened bracts at the base of an acorn

oak tree, oak - a deciduous tree of the genus Quercus; has acorns and lobed leaves; "great oaks grow from little acorns"

fruit - the ripened reproductive body of a seed plant

Translations

جَوْزَةُ البَلُّوط

žalud

agern

tammenterhoterho

žir

makk

akarn

ghianda

どんぐり

도토리

ekollon

ผลต้นโอ๊ก

meşe palamudu palamut

quả sồi

橡果

acorn

[ˈeɪkɔːn] N → bellota f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

acorn

[ˈeɪkɔː^rn] n → gland m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

acorn

n → Eichel f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

acorn

[ˈeɪkɔːn] n (Bot) → ghianda

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

acorn

→ جَوْزَةُ البَلُّوط žalud agern Eichel βελανίδι bellota terho gland žir ghianda どんぐり 도토리 eikel eikenøtt żołądź bolota желудь ekollon ผลต้นโอ๊ก meşe palamudu quả sồi 橡果

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Well, one Sunday morning I was sitting out here in front of my cabin, with my cat, taking the sun, and looking at the blue hills, and listening to the leaves rustling so lonely in the trees, and thinking of the home away yonder in the states, that I hadn't heard from in thirteen years, when a bluejay lit on that house, with an acorn in his mouth, and says,

View in context

AN OWL, in her wisdom, counseled the Birds that when the acorn first began to sprout, to pull it all up out of the ground and not allow it to grow.

View in context

And so still the forest was you could have heard an acorn drop or a bird call from one end of it to the other.

View in context

"I haven't heard Frank laugh so much for ever so long," said Grace to Amy, as they sat discussing dolls and making tea sets out of the acorn cups.

View in context

As Collingwood never saw a vacant place in his estate but he took an acorn out of his pocket and popped it in; so deal with your compliments through life.

View in context

I daresay it's a very ugly cap, and I used to think when I saw her here as it was nonsense for her to dress different t' other people; but I never rightly noticed her till she came to see mother last week, and then I thought the cap seemed to fit her face somehow as th 'acorn-cup fits th' acorn, and I shouldn't like to see her so well without it.

View in context

The course of meat finished, they spread upon the sheepskins a great heap of parched acorns, and with them they put down a half cheese harder than if it had been made of mortar.

View in context

Or is it this: To feed on the acorns and grass of knowledge, and for the sake of truth to suffer hunger of soul?

View in context

(acorns) which, in all times, had been gathered in that neighbourhood.

View in context

The method is this: in an acre of ground you bury, at six inches distance and eight deep, a quantity of acorns, dates, chestnuts, and other mast or vegetables, whereof these animals are fondest; then you drive six hundred or more of them into the field, where, in a few days, they will root up the whole ground in search of their food, and make it fit for sowing, at the same time manuring it with their dung: it is true, upon experiment, they found the charge and trouble very great, and they had little or no crop.

View in context

I saw her first, gathering young acorns from the branches of a large oak near our tree.

View in context

To hear acorns at their summit, and bees I the middle; And the sheep the bowed down bowed the with the their fleeces.

View in context