ˈearth-nut
Also 6 ernut(e.
1. The roundish tuber of an umbelliferous plant (Bunium flexuosum, including B. Bulbocastanum), called also earth-chestnut and pig-nut.
| 875 Charter in Cod. Dipl. III. 399 (Bosw.) Of ðam cumbe in eorþnutena þorn. 1551 Turner Herbal i. D iij b, Apios is called also Chamebalanos in greke..and the same semeth to me to be called in Englishe, an ernut, or an erthnut. 1597 Gerard Herbal ii. ccccxxxi. (1633) 1064 Earth nut, Earth chest nut, or Kipper nut. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. II. s.v. Sallet, Earth-Nuts, when the Rind is pared off, are eaten raw by Country People. 1784 Cowper Task v. 90 Daws forsake the fields, Where neither grub..nor earth-nut..Repays their labour. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S.C. 331 The earth-nut, pig-nut, or ground-nut, as it is variously called. |
2. Applied variously to other plants, as the truffle (Tuber), the arachis, the Œnanthe pimpinelloides, and the Heath Pea (Lathyrus macrorrhizus).
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes (1881) 17 Astragalus..may be called in english peaserthnut. 1644 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 83 A dish of Truffles, which is a certain earth-nut. 1713 Petiver in Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 62 Four leaved Earth-Nut. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict., Gesse, a plant of which there are two sorts, one..cultivated..and the other the wild one in Latin Chamælalanus, called by some Earth-Nut. a 1854 Phytologist III. 260 (Britten) Œnanthe pimpinelloides, L. The children eat the tubercles under the name of earth-nuts. |