Why Acorns?

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Warm_in_NH

Warm_in_NH

Minister of Fire
Dec 17, 2013
1,193
central NH or N.E. CT.
Apple trees drop apples, beach trees drop beach nuts, pine trees drop pine cones, why don't oak trees drop oak nuts?
This has been bugging me for a while now. Anyone know why there's a disconnect here? Maybe back to Indian names?
 
The question is why don't we actually call it an oak nut.
 
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Oh come on, it's not hard to go a little deeper into it. I love this kind of thing. According to an online etymological dictionary, there was an Old English word "æcern" that simply meant 'nut,' and there were similar words in other European languages meaning 'fruit' or 'fruits and vegetables,' and all of this was related to the Old English word 'æcer,' ancestor to our modern word 'acre,' because fruits and vegetables is what you get from acreage. It looks like a lot of these proto-"acorn" words were essentially equivalent to the word "produce" as we use it in the grocery store, and the meaning gradually narrowed to just mean "oak nuts," probably because these nuts were especially important as pig feed.
 
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Jon1270 said:
Oh come on, it's not hard to go a little deeper into it. I love this kind of thing. According to an online etymological dictionary, there was an Old English word "æcern" that simply meant 'nut,' and there were similar words in other European languages meaning 'fruit' or 'fruits and vegetables,' and all of this was related to the Old English word 'æcer,' ancestor to our modern word 'acre,' because fruits and vegetables is what you get from acreage. It looks like a lot of these proto-"acorn" words were essentially equivalent to the word "produce" as we use it in the grocery store, and the meaning gradually narrowed to just mean "oak nuts," probably because these nuts were especially important as pig feed.
Click to expand...


I think you aswered it. I've got to get to work before I post something that may degrade this thread further:)
 
Beech, chestnut, and oak are in the Fagaceae family and are all nuts. However, in the beech and chestnut species the involucre completely covers the nut. In the oak species the involucre forms a cup and does not cover the nut. I guess the early population didn't know that the acorn was a nut - you would not be incorrect by calling the acorn an oak nut.
 
blazincajun said:
Beech, chestnut, and oak are in the Fagaceae family and are all nuts. However, in the beech and chestnut species the involucre completely covers the nut. In the oak species the involucre forms a cup and does not cover the nut. I guess the early population didn't know that the acorn was a nut - you would not be incorrect by calling the acorn an oak nut.
Click to expand...

Lol. Thanks. ;lol . However if I start randomly referring to them as oak nuts, while I may technically be correct. I will become the one who is referred to as the nut.
 
I believe the american indians ate the acorns....the red variety are very bitter while the white being more palateable...
 
My dog eats them. They're really bitter. He drools like no tomorrow when he chimps on them, spits it out a half dozen times but ultimately finishes it and goes back for another.
I tried em, not a fan. But I can whistle really loud using an oak nut cap.
 
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Goose . . . geese.

Moose . . . meese? ;) :)
 
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