Why Acorns?

[Warm_in_NH]

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?

 

[splitoak]

Acorn is an oak nut......

 

[bmblank]

The question is why don't we actually call it an oak nut.

 

[Hogwildz]

They all drop what they bear. I am just glad I ain't dropping a nut or two.... ;-)

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Why is pooping called taking a crap. Why is a toll rd called a freeway? Why is having exhaustive sex called sleeping with someone?

 

[weatherguy]

Why is an asteroid called and asteroid and a hemorrhoid called a hemorrhoid? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

 

[razerface]

Why do we drive on parkways, and park in driveways?

 

[gregbesia]

Why is Richard -Dick, Robert -Bob

 

[Jon1270]

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.

 

[Ehouse]

Does anyone know the collective noun for acorn?

 

[Jon1270]

Does anyone know the collective noun for acorn?

Not me. Is there one?

 

[billb3]

Does anyone know the collective noun for acorn?

congress

 

[blazincajun]

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.

I think you aswered it. I've got to get to work before I post something that may degrade this thread further

 

[ryjen]

congress

I thought that was an modern slang verb that means "To do nothing".

 

[blazincajun]

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.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

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.

Lol. Thanks. . 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.

 

[blazincajun]

I will become the one who is referred to as the nut.

Just don't let it keep bugging you

 

[splitoak]

I believe the american indians ate the acorns....the red variety are very bitter while the white being more palateable...

 

[Warm_in_NH]

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.

 

[Smoke Stack]

Does anyone know the collective noun for acorn?

I'm going to go out on a limb here, hopefully not a broken one. A mess of acorns?

This is without looking anything up, but I think it fits.

 

[MrWhoopee]

I like these games.

What's a flock of crows called?

 

[tcassavaugh]

I like these games.

What's a flock of crows called?

isn't that a "murder" goodness knows why. I sure dont

 

[firefighterjake]

Goose . . . geese.

Moose . . . meese?

 

[JustWood]

Me thinx winter has set in !

 

[TreePointer]

If they were oak nuts, we wouldn't get to enjoy hearing old timers calling them "akerns."