Spanish chestnut

en-noun

Spanish chestnut (plural Spanish chestnuts)

Castanea sativa
Castanea sativa#Translingual

Castanea sativa, a deciduous tree with edible deep brown nutlike fruits. The fruits have a little white, fluffy tail.


hazel

hazel (usually uncountable, plural hazels)

hazels (plural)
hazle (alternative archaic)

From Middle English hasel, from Old English hæsl (“hazel, shrub”), from Proto-West Germanic *hasl, from Proto-Germanic *haslaz (“hazel”), from Proto-Indo-European *kóslos (“hazel”). Cognate with Dutch hazelaar (“hazel”), German Hasel (“hazel”), Swedish hassel (“hazel”), Latin corulus, corylus (“hazel-tree, hazelwood”), Irish coll (“hazel”).

The green turf was velvet underfoot. The blackbirds fluted in the hazels there.

1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water:

Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper.

1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273:

(countable) A tree or shrub of the genus Corylus, bearing edible nuts called hazelnuts or filberts.


chestnut

chestnut (countable and uncountable, plural chestnuts)

→ Gujarati: ચેસ્ટનટ (cesṭanaṭ)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-chestnut.wav

Formerly chesten nut, from Middle English chesten, Middle English chesteyne, chasteine, from Old English ċisten and reinforced by Old French chastaigne, both from Latin castānea, from Ancient Greek καστάνεια (kastáneia). Latin castānea also is the ultimate source of English castanet.

pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire


acorn

From Middle English acorn, an alteration (after corn) of earlier *akern, from Old English æcern (“acorn, oak-mast”), from Proto-West Germanic *akarn, from Proto-Germanic *akraną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂égrō (“berry”). Cognate with Scots aicorn, Saterland Frisian Äkkene, Tocharian B oko (“fruit”), Welsh eirin (“plums”), Breton irin (“plum”), Irish airne (“sloe”), Lithuanian úoga, Russian я́года (jágoda, “berry”), etc. Not related to Old English āc (“oak”), corn (“corn, seed”) or Middle English acquerne.

even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while

even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then

even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while

The fruit of the oak, being an oval nut growing in a woody cup or cupule.

anaskemen (red or black oak acorn; literally "oak berry")

anaskebagôn (red or black oak acorn; literally "oak nut")

ᒥᐢᑎᑯᒥᐣ (mistikomin, literally “oak berry”)

ᒥᐢᑎᑯᐹᑲᐣ (mistikopaakan, literally “oak nut”)

བེ་ཤིང་གི་འབྲས་བུ (be shing gi 'bras bu, literally “fruit of the oak tree”)

(nautical) A cone-shaped piece of wood on the point of the spindle above the vane, on the mast-head.

The Romans, likewise, represented the uncouth Priapus—the god of rustic fertility and sexual assault—as comically well endowed, with his acorn showing.

2021, A. W. Strouse, Form & Foreskin: Medieval Narratives of Circumcision:

(slang, usually in the plural) A testicle.


hazelnut

hazelnuts (plural)
hazel nut (alternative)

Equivalent to hazel + nut; from Middle English haselnote, from Old English hæselhnutu (“hazelnut”). Cognate with West Frisian hazzenút (“hazelnut”), Saterland Frisian Hoaselnuute (“hazelnut”), Dutch hazelnoot, German Haselnuss.

cog

Corylus avellana
Corylus avellana#Translingual

The fruit of the hazel, especially Corylus avellana, which is grown commercially.

(Corylus avellana, Corylus tubulosa) tuinavaälanöt

usually the American hazel (Corylus americana or Corylus maxima) which is common in Oregon.

cobnut (usually the common hazel which grows in the UK and Europe; filbert


mast

en-noun

mast (countable and uncountable, plural masts)

From Old English mæst (“fallen nuts, food for swine”) and mæstan (“to fatten”), from West Germanic; probably related to meat.

der

She ſhut them ſtraight in ſties; and gaue them meate / Oke-maſt, and beech, and Cornell fruite, they eate, […]

1614–1615, Homer, “The Tenth Booke of Homers Odysses”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC, page 151:

The Winter comes, and then the falling Maſt, / For greedy Swine, provides a full repaſt.

1697, Virgil, “The Second Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 93, lines 755–756:

[T]hey feed and grovel like Swine under an Oak, filling themſelves with the Maſt, but never ſo much as looking up, either to the Bows that bore, or the Hands that ſhook it down.

1715, Robert South, “A Sermon on Proverbs i. 32.”, in Twelve Sermons Preached at Several Times, and upon Several Occasions, volume IV, London: […] G. James, for Jonah Bowyer […], →OCLC, pages 73–74:

He […] would begin to pick up the seed-cases or mast, squeeze each one with his fingers to see if it were fertile, and drop it if it were not.

1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 162:

The fruit of forest-trees (beech, oak, chestnut, pecan, etc.), especially if having fallen from the tree, used as fodder for pigs and other animals.


walnut

en-noun

walnut (countable and uncountable, plural walnuts)

From Middle English walnote, walnutte, walnotte, from Old English wealhhnutu (“walnut”, literally “foreign nut”), from Proto-Germanic *walhaz (“foreigner”) + *hnuts (“nut”). Cognate with Dutch walnoot, German Walnuss, Swedish valnöt, Icelandic valhneta. Compare more recent term Welsh onion, which also uses Welsh to mean “foreign”.


almond

en-noun

almond (countable and uncountable, plural almonds)

From Middle English almond, almaund, from Old French almande, amande, from Vulgar Latin *amendla, *amandula, from Latin amygdala, from Ancient Greek ἀμυγδάλη (amugdálē), of uncertain origin. Influenced by amandus and by many European words of Arabic origin beginning with the Arabic definite article Arabic ال (al-). Compare Spanish almóndiga and Portuguese almôndega (“meatball”) from Andalusian Arabic البُنْدُقَة (“hazelnut al-bunduqa”). Doublet of amygdala, amygdale, and mandorla.

doublet

Other plants that produce almond-like nuts:

bitter almond. of variety Prunus amygdalus var. amara, (syn. Prunus dulcis var. amara), that only produces bitter fruits

Prunus japonica, flowering almond, an ornamental shrub in family Rosaceae

Prunus andersonii, desert almond, a North American shrub in family Rosaceae

Prunus fasciculata, desert range almond or wild almond, North American shrub in family Rosaceae

Terminalia catappa, Indian almond or tropical almond, in family Combretaceae

Terminalia catappa
Terminalia catappa#Translingual

Brabejum stellatifolium or bitter almond, in family Proteaceae


peanut

peanuts (plural)
pea nut (alternative obsolete)
pea-nut (alternative obsolete)

From pea + nut, perhaps a folk etymology of pinda, pinder (still found in Southern US dialects).

Arachis hypogaea
Arachis hypogaea#Translingual

A legume resembling a nut, the fruit of the plant Arachis hypogaea, native to South America.


blanched almond

en-noun

blanched almond (countable and uncountable, plural blanched almonds)


earthnut

earthnuts (plural)
earth-nut (alternative)

Inherited from Middle English erthenote, from Old English eorþhnutu, from Proto-Germanic *erþōhnuts; equivalent to earth + nut.

Any of various roots, tubers, or pods that grow underground:


filbert

Earlier filbert-nut, Philibert-nut, from Middle English filbert-note, from Anglo-Norman noix de filbert, so named because they are ripe near Saint Philibert’s Day.

cobnut

usually the common hazel (Corylus avellana) which grows in the UK and Europe

I'll bring thee / To clust'ring filberts, and sometimes I'll get thee / Young scamels from the rock.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

I've seen one monkey force open the jaws of his brother, resolutely introduce his fingers, pluck from the sanctuary of his cheek the filbert he had just stowed there for his private nutrition and delight, and crunch and eat it with a stern ecstasy of selfishness, himself […]

1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

A paintbrush used in oil and acrylic painting with a long ferrule and a curving, tongue-shaped head.


pecan

pecans (plural)
paccan (alternative dated obsolete possibly)
peccan (alternative dated obsolete possibly)

Borrowed from French pacane and at first spelt paccan. The French word derives from an Algonquian word, perhaps Miami (Illinois) pakani. Compare Cree pakan (“hard nut”), Ojibwe bagaan, Abenaki pagann, bagôn, pagôn (“nut; walnut, hazelnut”).

And away on the farther bank, a motte of huge pecans, standing like giant sentinels over the dwarfed landscape, filled the eye with remote vistas in their shady, twilight aisles. It was very still.

1885, Howard Seely, A Ranchman's stories, page 154:

Within its ornamental fence, the 8/10-acre property includes several of the largest live oaks in the area — plus huge pecans and stately magnolias.

A deciduous tree, Carya illinoinensis, of the central and southern United States, having deeply furrowed bark, pinnately compound leaves, and edible nuts.


conker

From 19th-century dialect conker (“snail-shell”); the game of conkers was originally played using snail-shells; from conch + -er or a variant of conquer.

His bald spot gleams like a burnished conker.

2006, Peter Godwin, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa:

(British) A horse chestnut, used in the game of conkers.

pysen boced

horse chestnut used in the game of conkers


groundnut

From ground + nut. Compare Icelandic jarðhneta, German Erdnuss and Hungarian földimogyoró.

A plant which bears its nutlike seeds underground, such as a peanut (Arachis hypogaea) or a Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea).


betel nut

betel nuts (plural)
beetel nut (alternative)
beetle nut (alternative)
betelnut (alternative)

An egg-shaped seed of the betel palm; wrapped in the leaves of the betel pepper and chewed.


coconut

coconut (countable and uncountable, plural coconuts)

coconuts (plural)
cocoanut (alternative dated)
coco-nut (alternative archaic)
cokernut (alternative archaic)

→ Japanese: ココナッツ (kokonattsu)

From coco + nut. In reference to assimilated Hispanic or black people, derived from the fruit's exotic origins and the slur that they are "brown on the outside, white on the inside". In reference to Polynesians, from the ubiquity of coconut palms in the area.

that accounts for the milk in the coconut

The Coco-nut Trees grow by the Sea, on the Weſtern ſide in great Groves, 3 or 4 Miles in length, and a Mile or two broad. This tree is in ſhape like the Cabbage-tree, and at a diſtance they are not to be known each from other, only the Coco-nut Tree is fuller of Branches ; but the Cabbage-tree generally is much higher, tho' the Coco-nut Trees in ſome places are very high.

1699, William Dampier, chapter X, in A New Voyage Round the World. […], 4th corrected edition, volume I, London: Printed for James Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 291:

Cocos nucifera
Cocos nucifera#Translingual

A fruit of the coconut palm (not a true nut), Cocos nucifera, having a fibrous husk surrounding a large seed.

After that I was regarded as comic. I became a ‘coconut’—someone brown on the outside, white on the inside. I was the bleached academic—more white than the anglo professors. In my classes several students glared at me, clearly seeing in me the person they feared ever becoming. Who was I, after all, but some comic Queequeg, holding close to my breast a reliquary containing the white powder of a dead European civilization?

1982, Richard Rodriguez, “Profession”, in Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez, Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 162:

(US, derogatory, ethnic slur) A Hispanic or other dark-skinned person considered to have overly assimilated to white culture, a race traitor.

Your mum is a white whore, you coconut.

2016 June 8, “Containment”, in Cleverman, episode 2, spoken by Waruu West [speaking to half-brother Koen West]:

(South Africa, Australia, derogatory, ethnic slur) A black person considered to have overly assimilated to white culture, a black race traitor.

(New Zealand, derogatory, ethnic slur) A Pacific islander.

(Malaysia, Singapore, derogatory, ethnic slur) A Malay person who cannot speak Malay.

[Ashley J. Williams shoots a zombified version of the Winter Soldier in the head.]
Dazzler: Oh my God...thank you! I-i-is he--
Ashley J. Williams: A double-barrel boomstick blast straight through the coconut? Trust me, babe--he's not comin' back from that one.

2007, Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness, 2, page 19:

'How unfortunate.'
'Yes. It's rather causing him to go off his coconut. He's met a girl, you see. A peach.'

2021, Dennis Glover, The Last Man in Europe:


beech mast

beech mast (usually uncountable, plural beech masts)

beech masts (plural)
beechmast (alternative)

the fruit or mast of the beech tree; beechnuts


macadamia

macadamia (countable and uncountable, plural macadamias)

The fruit of this tree; the macadamia nut.


macadamia nut

The hard-shelled edible seed of the macadamia tree.


gooranut

Uncertain. Compare Hausa gōr̃ò, Bambara goro, Mandinka guro (“kola nut”).


cashew

Reanalysis of French acajou as a + cajou, from Old Tupi akaîu. Doublet of acajou.

wild cashew

Anacardium excelsum or Anacardium giganteum

Soft-wood grafting and veneer grafting are successful in cashew.

2002, P. K. Ray, Breeding Tropical and Subtropical Fruits, page 221:

Also known as the Native Cashew, it is a member of the Anacardiaceae, the same plant family to which the Cashew and Mango trees belong.

2005, Roger Martin, Tree-Kangaroos of Australia and New Guinea, page 106:

Cashew (Anacardium occidental L.) is an export-oriented crop grown for its nuts, a true drupe.

2007, Alice Kurian, K. V. Peter (series editor), Commercial Crops Technology (Horticulture Science; 8), page 63:

Anacardium occidentale
Anacardium occidentale#Translingual

A tree, Anacardium occidentale, native to northeastern Brazil, now widely grown in tropical climates for its cashew nuts and cashew apples.


cashew nut

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cashew nut.wav

Cashew nut is made up of a fruit in which the kernel is embedded. The real fruit of the cashew is commonly a nut. It is a kidney- or heart-shaped achene, in any normal variety.

2015, Encyclopedia of Food and Health, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 683:

The seed of the cashew tree, often viewed as a nut in the culinary sense.


pine nut

pinenut (alternative)
pine-nut (alternative)

pine nut soda

(South Africa) The flavor that results from mixing pineapple and coconut.


pistachio

pistachio (plural pistachios or pistachioes)

pistachios (plural)
pistachioes (plural)

→ Japanese: ピスタチオ (pisutachio)

→ Korean: 피스타치오 (piseutachio)

→ Malay: pistacio, pistasio

→ Thai: พิสตาชีโอ (pís-dtaa-chí-ôo)

→ Welsh: pistasio

From Italian pistacchio (1590s), from Latin pistācium (“pistachio”), from Ancient Greek πιστάκιον (pistákion), from πιστάκη (pistákē, “pistachio tree”). Of Iranian origin. Compare Northern Kurdish pisteq, Persian پسته (peste), Middle Persian pstk' (pistag, “pistachio nut”), Old Armenian պիստակ (pistak) (from Iranian), Arabic فُسْتُق (fustuq), Turkish fıstık.

cog

Pistacia vera
Pistacia vera#Translingual

A deciduous tree (Pistacia vera) grown in parts of Asia for its drupaceous fruit.

A pale green colour, like that of a pistachio seed.


brazil nut

brazil nuts (plural)
Brazil nut (alternative)

Bertholletia excelsa
Bertholletia excelsa#Translingual

Bertholletia excelsa, a tree native to tropical South America.


beechnut

beechnuts (plural)
beech nut (alternative)

The small, triangular, edible nut of the beech tree.


boscage

en-noun

boscage (countable and uncountable, plural boscages)

From the Middle English boskage, from the Old French boscage, from Vulgar Latin *boscāticum, from Late Latin boscus, from Frankish *busk (compare Middle Dutch busch), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“forest, woods”).

der

(law) Mast-nuts of forest trees, used as food for pigs, or any such sustenance as wood and trees yield to cattle.


beer nut

Possibly from the US trademark Beer Nuts (named for their intended use as a snack with beer), though the US brand is not sold in Australia.

Stanley crumbled the husk of a beer nut between his thumb and middle finger.

1984, Steve Katz, Mongolian Whiskey: Stolen Stories, page 37:

For instance, there's Phillip's opinion of chocolate: to him, it's just another snack—like beer nuts or a piece of fruit.

2006, Robin McGraw, Inside My Heart: Choosing to Live with Passion and Purpose, page 28:

At the end of the party, the parents of the birthday boy handed me a party bag and my prize: a bag of beer nuts. I've since wondered what kind of parent would possibly give an eight-year-old beer nuts, but whatever. It was the seventies.

2008, Tim Schenck, What Size are God's Shoes?: Kids, Chaos, and the Spiritual Life, page 37:

(Australia) A peanut served with its husk (but not its shell).


butternut

en-noun

butternut (countable and uncountable, plural butternuts)

Juglans cinerea
Juglans cinerea#Translingual

A North American walnut tree, Juglans cinerea.


piñon

piñon (countable and uncountable, plural piñons or piñones)

piñons (plural)
piñones (plural)
pinon (alternative)
pinyon (alternative)

They planted a few piñons.

The hills were covered with clusters of piñon.

On the mountains a few junipers and piñons are found, and cactuses, agave, and yuccas, low, fleshy plants with bayonets and thorns.

1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 22:

Anglos call it a “kiva fireplace” and put several in every Santa Fe style building, carefully burning piñon firewood upright in the approved local manner.

1994, Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built, New York: Viking, →ISBN, page 146:

(uncountable, countable) Any of several species of North American pines in Pinus subsect. Cembroides that bear edible seeds (pine nuts), especially Pinus edulis; the nut pine.


cobnut

From earlier cobylle nut; see cobble, nut.

filbert

usually the American hazel, Corylus americana or Corylus maxima, which is common in Oregon


pignoli

From Italian pinoli (“pine nuts”) (by confusion with pignoli (“fussy people”)?).


bladdernut

Any of several species of large shrubs or small trees, of the genus Staphylea, in the family Staphyleaceae


nigger toe

(colloquial, offensive, dated) A brazil nut.


goober

Conscripts by the dozen...
Come pouring in the Castle...
Some from Mississippi state and “Goobers” from Tar river.

1863, anonymous author, “Castle Thunder”, in Louis Napoléon Boudrye, editor, Historic Records of the Fifth New York Cavalry..., Appendix, page 339:

The peanuts or earth-nuts known in North Carolina and the adjoining States as Goober peas, so that during the late Civil War a conscript from the so-called ‘piney woods’ of that State was apt to be nick-named a Goober.

1871, Maximilian Schele de Vere, Americanisms, page 57:

(chiefly Southern US, dated slang) A Georgian or North Carolinian, particularly one from the pine forests of the Sandhills region.


bitternut

The bitternut hickory, Carya cordiformis, a common hickory tree native to the eastern United States and southeast Canada.


mongongo

mongongos (plural)
mugongo (alternative)

Its egg-shaped, velvety fruit, having a thin layer of edible flesh surrounding a highly nutritious nut.


leblebi

leblebi (countable and uncountable, plural leblebis)

From Ottoman Turkish لبلبی (leblebi, “roasted chickpea; jumbled or mashed chickpea”) and Modern Turkish leblebi from Arabic لَبْلَابِيّ (lablābiyy, “chickpea stew”), and directly from Arabic لَبْلَابِيّ (lablābiyy) for Arabic dishes but then more properly spelled lablabi.

der

A kind of snack made from roasted chickpeas

Alternative form of lablabi (“a soup made from chickpeas, olive oil and stale bread”).


candlenut

In both respects, as I have already pointed out, they differed from the Polynesians who brought with them to their island homes not only their language but their agriculture, from the cradle of their race in the Malay Archipelago; cuttings of seedless breadfruit and of sugarcane, fleshy roots of taro and yams; even trees, like the Indian almond and the candlenut.

1923, Various, Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Fourteenth Annual Meeting:

A flowering tree (Aleurites moluccana and Aleurites rockinghamensis) of the family Euphorbiaceae, also known as candleberry, Indian walnut, kemiri, varnish tree or kukui nut tree.


Queensland nut

The tree is native to parts of Queensland, Australia.


chinquapin

chinquapins (plural)
chinkapin (alternative)
chincapin (alternative)

Like its cognate / alternative form chinkapin, chinquapin is an alteration of chechinquamin / chincomen (the form found in early records), from an Algonquian language (sometimes said specifically to be from Powhatan). The final element is *mini (“berry, fruit”). Hewitt suggested that the first element was a word meaning "large, great" cognate to xinkw- (“big, large, great”).

Any of certain species of tree in the chestnut genus Castanea:

Any in the genus Chrysolepis of trees and shrubs.

Quercus muehlenbergii, a tree whose leaves resemble those of chestnut-genus chinquapins.

Nelumbo lutea
Nelumbo lutea#Translingual

A water chinquapin, an aquatic plant of species Nelumbo lutea, American lotus.

A redear sunfish, a freshwater fish of the southeastern US (Lepomis microlophus).


use a sledgehammer to crack a nut

en-verb

use a sledgehammer to crack a nut (third-person singular simple present uses a sledgehammer to crack a nut, present participle using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, simple past and past participle used a sledgehammer to crack a nut)

uses a sledgehammer to crack a nut (present singular third-person)
using a sledgehammer to crack a nut (participle present)
used a sledgehammer to crack a nut (participle past)
used a sledgehammer to crack a nut (past)

/ˌjuːz‿ə ˈslɛd͡ʒhæmə tə ˌkɹæk‿ə ˈnʌt/

/ˌjuz‿ə ˈslɛd͡ʒhæmɚ tə ˌkɹæk‿ə ˈnʌt/

En-au-use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.ogg

The analogy dates back to at least the middle of the 19th century: see, for example, this quotation from Levi Carroll Judson’s work Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution (1851): “He at once became the nucleus around which a band of patriots gathered and formed a nut too hard to be cracked by the sledgehammer of monarchy.”

nb...

In Two Parts: Including the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Two Hundred and Forty Three of the Sages and Heroes are Presented in Due Form: And Many Others are Named Incidentally.

This last mentioned consideration involves the concept in Community law (derived principally from German law) called "proportionality". In plain English it means "You must not use a steam hammer to crack a nut, if a nutcracker would do."

[1983 January 20, Lord Diplock [i.e., Kenneth Diplock, Baron Diplock], Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, House of Lords, “Regina, respondent, and Goldstein, appellant [[1983] 1 W.L.R. 151]”, in The Weekly Law Reports, volume 1, London: Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 155:

Today, Mr [Anthony] Worthington, an engineer, said: 'Sending three officers over simply to give a warning about kids playing football in the street is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.[…]'

2010 September 21, “‘A sledgehammer to crack a nut’: Three police officers and a patrol car rush to … children playing football in the street”, in Daily Mail, London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-06:

In our view the Public Order Bill is an attempt by the Government to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. At a time when we should be focusing on rebuilding trust in the police, this Bill risks stoking further mistrust and undermining their vital role in protecting the public.

2022 December 17, Martin Evans, quoting Mike Barton et al., “Law to curb Just Stop Oil protests ‘a sledgehammer to crack a nut’, say ex-police chiefs”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-02-18:

(intransitive, Australia, British, New Zealand, idiomatic, informal) To use disproportionate or significantly excessive force to carry out an action; to do something overzealously.

to use disproportionate or significantly excessive force to carry out an action

高射炮打蚊子 (gāoshèpào dǎ wénzi, literally “to use an anti-aircraft gun to hit a mosquito”)

割雞焉用牛刀 /割鸡焉用牛刀 (gējī yān yòng niúdāo, literally “when killing a chicken, why use an ox cleaver?”)

牛鼎烹雞 /牛鼎烹鸡 (niúdǐngpēngjī, literally “to use a cauldron for a cow to cook a chicken”)

ಗುಬ್ಬಿ ಮೇಲೆ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಸ್ತ್ರ (gubbi mēle brahmāstra, literally “to strike a sparrow with the brahmāstra”)

пали́ть из пу́шки по воробья́м impf (palítʹ iz púški po vorobʹjám, literally “to fire a cannon at sparrows”)

పిచ్చుక మీద బ్రహ్మాస్త్రము (piccuka mīda brahmāstramu, literally “to strike a sparrow with the brahmāstra”)

ขี่ช้างจับตั๊กแตน (kìi-cháang-jàp-dták-gà-dtɛɛn, literally “to ride an elephant to catch a grasshopper”)

when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail


fistinut

Compare Turkish fıstık / فستق. See pistachio.

The Pistacia mutica (fistinut tree), Cercis siliquastrum, Vitex agnus and othr^([sic]) Mediterranian^([sic]) species of trees are characteristic for the Southern coast of the Crimea, from the Cape Aya to Kisiltash.

1930, Guide-book for the Excursion of the Second International Congress of Soil Science, volume 1, Moscow: Organizing Committee of the Second International Congress of Soil Science, Public Office of the State Planning Committee of the USSR, page 33:


water caltrop

An East Asian water plant, of species Trapa bicornis, with a horn-like nut.

water chestnut

but best not used for this plant, to avoid confusion


Chinese olive

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Chinese olive.wav

The olive-shaped fruit of a Chinese tree, Canarium album, usually eaten dried or its seed eaten as a nut.


nicker nut

nicker nuts (plural)
nickar nut (alternative)
nickernut (alternative)

(archaic) The rounded seed of the nicker tree.


pinder

pinders (plural)
pindar (alternative)
pinda (alternative)

Via Gullah from Kongo mpinda (“peanut”), also borrowed in Dutch as pinda.

(US, dialectal, especially Southern US) A peanut, the nut-like pod containing the edible seed(s) of a leguminous plant.


Pará nut

Pará nuts (plural)
paranut (alternative)


coquilla nut

From Portuguese coquilho, Spanish coquillo, diminutive of coco (“a coconut”).

The fruit of a Brazilian palm tree (Attalea funifera of Martius), whose hard dense shell is used by turners to make ornamental articles.


aburagiri

/ˌɑ.bə.ɹəˈɡɪ.ɹi/

Borrowed from Japanese 油桐 (アブラギリ, aburagiri), from 油 (あぶら, abura, “oil”) + 桐 (キリ, kiri, “paulownia”).

A large Asian tree, Aleurites moluccana, that produces candlenuts.


welshnut

welshnuts (plural)
Welshnut (alternative)
Welsh-nut (alternative)

From Middle English walsh-note, from Old English wealhhnutu (“walnut”, literally “Welsh-nut”), equivalent to Welsh + nut.

inh

[…] Our tongues do run, O, / Enough to stun, O, / Your head wi' glee by the welshnut tree.

1879, William Barnes, “The Welshnut Tree”, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, page 85:

A wife, a whelp and a Welshnut tree / The more you beat 'em, the better they be.

1912, Country Life, volume 31, page 313:

(UK dialects, West Country, Dorset, Somerset, dated) A walnut (nut or tree).


chilgoza

From Persian چلغوزه (čelġuze), from چهل (čehel, “forty”) + غوزه (ġuze, “nut”).


hickory nut

To break the shell of a hickory nut, you needed a hammer and an act of Congress, and even then you needed a screwdriver to get at the meat, which was about as tasty as a clod of limestone.

2018, Tayari Jones, An American Marriage, Oneworld Publications, page 270:

One of the large edible nuts of the hickory tree.


pili nut

pili nuts (plural)
pilinut (alternative)

The edible seed of Canarium ovatum, a tree native to the maritime tropics from the edge of Southeast Asia to the edge of Australia.


palm nut

Elaeis guineensis
Elaeis guineensis#Translingual

The edible seed of Elaeis guineensis, the oil palm


heartnut

The edible seed of a Japanese species of walnut, Juglans ailantifolia.


ginkgo nut

Ginkgo biloba
Ginkgo biloba#Translingual

The edible seed of the ginkgo, Ginkgo biloba.


kola nut

kola nuts (plural)
colanut (alternative)
cola nut (alternative)
kolanut (alternative)

The local people here believe that kola nut tea -- or as they call it, bissy tea -- is a cure for all ailments.

A newspaper was on his lap as he ruminatively chewed on half a bitter kola nut, which he occasionally dipped into a small bowl of yellow salt that was set beside him.

2005, Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl, Bloomsbury, page 306:

The edible seed of the kola tree, Cola acuminata and related species, used as a flavoring and as a source of caffeine.


Bambara groundnut

en-noun

Bambara groundnut (plural Bambara groundnuts)

The edible seed of an African plant of species Vigna subterranea, which produces its seeds underground, like peanuts.


Tahitian chestnut

Tahitian chestnut (plural Tahitian chestnuts)

A tropical tree native from Malaysia across the southern Pacific (Inocarpus fagifer).


Malabar chestnut

Malabar chestnut (plural Malabar chestnuts)

The edible seed of a tropical tree, Pachira aquatica, also known as the money tree.


Madeira nut

Juglans regia
Juglans regia#Translingual

(dated) A common walnut, a nut of an English walnut (Juglans regia).


seednut

seednuts (plural)
seed-nut (alternative)


walshnut

walshnuts (plural)
welshnut (alternative)

From Middle English walshenote, welshnote, from Old English *wealischnutu, equivalent to walsh + nut. Compare walnut.


gao lak

Borrowed from Teochew 侯栗 (gao⁶ lag⁸, “chestnut”).

bor+

The economy now had a wide range of jobs, and society here welcomed a broad spectrum of ideas."........ get ready to sell gao lak/chestnuts for a living, maybe that's what he means.... :P

2003 June 4, soc.culture.singapore (Usenet):

I saw in the papers that there was this graduate frying "gao luk".

2004 February 3, soc.culture.singapore (Usenet):

In China, even buying gao lak or chestnuts from a street vendor is done via e-payment methods such as WeChat Pay and AliPay. This is one area Singapore is lagging behind, PM Lee noted.

2017 August 20, Lee Min Kok, “PM Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally speech: All you need to know in 3 minutes”, in The Straits Times:

Chestnuts roasted on wooden pushcarts. Gao lak probably fell out of fashion when littering laws came into effect and tossing the chestnut shells behind you as you walk would earn you a fine.

2015 April 14, Natalie Koh, “17 Nostalgic Street Snacks in Singapore that Bring Tears to Our Eyes”, in Tripzilla:Make it happen:

Kuali Baba: Today as I walked passed the gao lak seller, I almost thought I heard him chanting that.

2007 March 9, “'No more sweet potato boy – SgForums.com (Singapore)”, in SGFORUMS:

(Singapore, colloquial) Roasted chestnuts.


mummy nut

Nuts left over in trees after harvesting.


coconut meat

The white lining within the shell of a coconut; the endocarp of the coconut seed.

椰肉

the white lining within the shell of a coconut


beech nut

beech nuts (plural)
beechnut (alternative)

The edible nut of the beech tree, Fagus.


Bambara nut

Bambara groundnut
Bambara groundnut#English


catànies

Crema Catalana is used in stuffed fruits, such as Peres de Lleida, pears from Lleida, one of the oldest towns in Catalonia; Catànies, Catalan marcona sweetened almonds; Mató de Pedralbes, a Catalan cream treat from Barcelona; Manjar blanco, a Spanish blancmange eaten throughout the Spanish-speaking world; and Xuixos, a deep-fried custard-filled cylindrical pastry.

2014, Timothy G. Roufs Ph.D., Kathleen Smyth Roufs, Sweet Treats Around the World: An Encyclopedia of Food and Culture:

Other sweet treats include catànies, chocolate-covered Catalan almonds, nutty galetas (biscuits), melindros (ladyfingers) and many varieties of torró (nougat).

2017, Insight Guides, Experience Barcelona:

The rest of the dinner went on with a tense normality and, as soon as we had our catànies and coffee, we said goodbye to the family, alluding to the fact that we had to get up early in the morning.

2020, Miquel Àngel Lopezosa Criado, p53: The Molecule of Life:

A Catalan sweet made from almonds coated in caramel and powdered chocolate.


grugru nut

(Caribbean) The edible kernel from the fruit of the grugru palm, Acrocomia aculeata


bannut

Wor. They picks they stones off the common, as small as bannuts (H.K.). w.Wor.¹ Sarmints is ahl like bannuts; d’reckly yŭ opens ’um, yŭ knaows w’ats in ’um.[…]se.Wor.¹ The fust time as ever I knaowed ’im wus w’en ’e wus took up fur stalin’ bannits.[…]We cannot tell how many bannuts there be, till we beat the trees (A.B.); Ellis Pronun. (1889) V. 66. ne.Glo. The old man … forbade the young fellow’s visits, bluntly declaring that he might go and ‘bad the bannuts’ somewhere else, Household Wds. (1885) 141.[…]Som. A woman, a spaunel, and a bannut tree, The mooar you bate ’em the better they be, W. & J. Gl. (1873);

1898, “BANNUT, sb.”, in Joseph Wright, editor, The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume I (A–C), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 158, column 1:

Crack nuts and bannuts (walnuts), / Say the bells of St. Weonard’s.

1912, Ella Mary Leather, The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire: Collected from Oral and Printed Sources, page 241:

In 1810-11 the tenant of Rushock Court at his own expense, planted: / 220 strong pears at 3/- / 56 pear stocks at 2/- / 104 pears at 1/6 / 114 stocks at 2/- / 60 crabs at 1/6 / 41 crabs at 1/- / 26 damsons at 1/6 / 14 walnuts at 2/- / 2 Bannuts at 3/- / 6 Spanish Chestnuts at 1/- /—total with expenses of planting £79 2s. 0d.

1913, Gerald Poynton Mander, The History of the Wolverhampton Grammar School, Wolverhampton: […] Steens Limited at the Old Grammar School Press, page 338:

One of the workmen remarked that “He be so like a Christian you canna pass him without givin’ him summat, an’ now I gives him the bannuts* he runs to the door to meet me when he sees me a-comin’.”[…]* “Bannuts”—local word for walnuts.

1917 January, Frances Pitt, “The Education of “The Coon””, in The Badminton Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume XLVII, number 258, London, page 84: