ˈoil-nut
A name for various nuts and large seeds which yield oil; also for the plants producing them; spec. a. the Castor-oil Plant, Ricinus communis; b. the North American Butternut, Juglans cinerea; c. the North American Buffalo-nut or Elk-nut; d. the Oil Palm, Elæis guineensis.
| 1694 Town Rec. Topsfield, Mass. (1917) I. 86/2 From thence on a straight line to an oylenut tree which is Isaac Burtons tree marked. 1707 Sloane Jamaica I. 126 The Oil-Nut-Tree..seems not to be different from the European Ricinus. 1778 J. Carver Trav. N.-Amer. 500 The Butter or Oilnut... The tree grows in meadows, where the soil is rich and warm. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 189 White Walnut, Butternut, or Oilnut. 1813 H. Muhlenberg Catal. Plantarum Americæ Septentrionalis 96 Oil nut, (Pyrularia or Hamiltonia oleifera). 1832 D. J. Browne Sylva Amer. 173 In Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont it [sc. the butternut] bears the name of Oil Nut. 1866 Whittier Marg. Smith's Jrnl. Pr. Wks. 1889 I. 82 We passed many trees, well loaded with walnuts and oilnuts. 1877 J. A. B. Horton in Moloney Forestry W. Afr. (1887) 40 The longer the oil-nuts remain underground the thicker the oil will be when made. 1884 Miller Plant-n., Pyrularia oleifera, Buffalo-nut, Elk-nut, or Oil-nut, of N. America. 1912 E. Seton Forester's Manual 41 White Walnut, Oil Nut, or Butternut (Juglans cinerea). 1933 J. K. Small Man. S.E. Flora 1250 P[yrularia] pubera... Buffalo-nut. Oil-nut. Mountain-coconut. |