▪ I. acorn
(ˈeɪkɔːn)
Forms: 1 æcern, æcirn, (2–3 ? akern); 4–7 akern, (4 hakern); 4 pl. acres, atcherne; 4–5 acharn(e; 4–6 achorn(e, 5 akerne, ackerne, accharne, acorun, accorne, hockorn; 5–7 acorne, oke-corne; 6 akecorne, okehorne, acquorn, eykorn; 6–7 akehorne, akorne, acron; 7 oke-corn, akorn; 6– acorn.
[The formal history of this word has been much perverted by ‘popular etymology.’ OE. æcern neut., pl. æcernu, is cogn. w. ON. akarn neut. (Dan. agern, Norw. aakorn), Du. aker ‘acorn,’ OHG. ackeran masc. and neut. (mod.G. ecker, pl. eckern) ‘oak or beech mast,’ Goth. akran ‘fruit,’ prob. a deriv. of Goth. akr-s, ON. akr, OE. æcer ‘field,’ orig. ‘open unenclosed country, the plain.’ Hence akran appears to have been originally ‘fruit of the unenclosed land, natural produce of the forest,’ mast of oak, beech, etc., as in HG., extended in Gothic to ‘fruit’ generally, and gradually confined in Low G., Scand., and Eng., to the most important forest produce, the mast of the oak. (See Grimm, under Ackeran and Ecker.) In ælfric's Genesis xliv. 11, it had perhaps still the wider sense, a reminiscence of which also remains in the ME. akernes of okes. Along with this restriction of application, there arose a tendency to find in the name some connexion with oak, OE. ác, north. ake, aik. Hence the 15th and 16th c. refashionings ake-corn, oke-corn, ake-horn, oke-horn, with many pseudo-etymological and imperfectly phonetic variants. Of these the 17th c. literary acron seems to simulate the Gr. ἄκρον top, point, peak. The normal mod. repr. of OE. æcern would be akern, akren, or ? atchern as already in 4; the actual acorn is due to the 16th c. fancy that the word corn formed part of the name.]
1. Fruit generally, or ? mast of trees. Obs.
| c 1000 ælfric Gen. xliii. 11 Bringað þam men lac, somne dæl tyrwan & huniᵹ and stor, and æcirnu & hnite. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. (1560) i. 201/1 (1868) 25 Let him gone, beguiled of trust that he had to his corne, to Achornes of Okes. Ibid. (1868) 50 To slaken her hunger at euene wiþ acornes of okes. |
2. a. The fruit or seed of the oak-tree; an oval nut growing in a shallow woody cup or
cupule.
| c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wright Voc. 33 & 80 Glans, æcern. Ibid. 284 Glandix, æceren. c 1350 Will. Palerne 1811 Hawes, hepus & hakernes, & þe hasel-notes. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls. Ser.) I. 195 (The Athenians) tauȝte..ete acharns [Caxton acornes]. Ibid. II. 345 Toforehonde þey lyued by acres (= cum ante glandibus sustentarentur). 1388 Inv. of Goods of Sir S. Burley in Prom. Parv. 6 Deux pairs des pater nosters de aumbre blanc, l'un countrefait de Atchernes, l'autre rounde. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. (1495) ix. xix. 357 Nouembre is paynted as a chorle betyng okes and fedynge his swyne with maste and hockornes. Ibid. xvii. cxxxiv. 690 The hoke beeryth fruyte whyche hyghte Ackerne. Ibid. xviii. lxxxvii. 837 Hogges bothe male and female haue lykynge to ete Akernes. c 1440 Prom. Parv. 361 Ocorn or acorn [1499 occarne, or akorne] frute of an oke. Ibid. 6 Accorne or archarde, frute of the oke. a 1500 Nominale in Wright Voc. 228 Hec glans a nacorun. 1500 Ortus Voc. Accharne, okecorne. 1509 Fisher Wks. 234 (1876) He coude not haue his fyll of pesen and oke cornes. 1523 Fitzherbert Surv. xxix. 51 Ye must gather many akehornes. 1547 Salesbury Dict. Eng. & Welsh, Mesen An oke corne. 1549 Compl. Scotl. xvii. 144 (1872) Acquorns, vyild berreis, green frutis, rutis & eirbis. 1551 Turner Herbal. iii. 109 (1568) The oke whose fruite we call an Acorn, or an Eykorn, that is the corn or fruit of an Eyke. 1552 Huloet, Woode bearynge maste or okehornes, Glandaria sylua. 1565 Jewel Repl. to M. Harding 302 (1611) They fed of Akecornes, and dranke water. 1570 R. Ascham Scholem. 145 (1870) To eate ackornes with swyne, when we may freely eate wheate bread emonges men. 1572 J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 74 b, To assuage theire hongre at euen with the Akecornes of Okes. 1580 Tusser Husbandry 28 For feare of a mischiefe keep acorns from kine. 1580 North Plutarch (1595) 236 The Arcadians..were in olde time called eaters of akornes. 1586 B[eard] La Primaudaye's Fr. Acad. II. 117 (1594) The hogge, who with his snowte alwayes towardes the earth, feedeth upon the akornes that are underneath the Oakes. 1594 Plat Jewell-house iii. 13 You may feed Turkies with brused acrons. 1597 Bacon Ess. 256 (1862) Satis quercus, Acornes were good till bread was found, etc. 1611 Heywood Gold. Age i. i. 11 He hath taught his people—to skorne Akehornes with their heeles. 1611 Cotgr., Couppelettes de gland, Akorne cups. 1613 W. Browne Brit. Past. II. ii. iii. (1772) 96 Green boughs of trees with fat'ning acrones lade. 1627 May Lucan vi. (1631) 481 That famed Oake fruitfull in Akehornes. 1632 Sanderson 12 Serm. 471 Vnder the Oakes we grouze vp the Akecorns. 1640 Brome Sparagus Gard. 113 Leekes, and Akornes here Are food for Critickes. 1649 Lovelace Grasshopper 34 Thou dost retire To thy Carv'd Acron-bed to lye. 1651 Hobbes Leviathan iv. xlvi. 368 They fed on Akorns, and drank Water. 1664 Evelyn Sylva 15 (1679) Any Oak, provided it were a bearing Tree, and had Acorns upon it. 1674 Grew Anat. Plants i. i. (1682) 3 Oak-Kernels, which we call Acorns. Ibid. iv. ii. iv. 186 An Akern, is the Nut of an Oak. a 1682 Sir T. Browne Tracts 27 Some oaks do grow and bear acrons under the sea. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 81 The Acorn of the Cork is astringent. c 1821 Keats Fancy 248 Acorns ripe down-pattering While the autumn breezes spring. 1859 Coleman Woodl. Heaths & Hedges 7 The young trees usually first produce acorns when about fifteen to eighteen years old. |
b. An artificial object resembling an acorn in shape. Also in
Comb. (see
quots.)
| 1580 T. Bawdewyn in Lodge Illustr. Brit. Hist. (1791) II. cliv. 243, I did send yowre Honor..a cup w{supt}{suph} a cover..two saltes, 11 acornes. 1795 Ann. Reg. 1772 (ed. 5) Chron. 85/1 The lightning was attracted by the acorn on the top of the chapel. a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 3/2 Acorn-headed Bolt, a carriage-bolt with an ornamental head..in shape resembling an acorn. 1935 C. G. Burge Compl. Bk. Aviation 85/1 Acorn, a device introduced at the intersection of bracing wires to prevent abrasion. 1935 Burlington Mag. LXVII. 150/2 The acorn-bulb [in a drinking-glass]..is exactly matched by a stem in the Thaurin Collection at Rouen. 1943 Gen 19 June 42/2 Acorn Tops are screwed on to the ends of brass curtain rods. 1960 H. Hayward Antique Coll. 9/2 Acorn clock, shelf or mantel clock..with the upper portion shaped somewhat like an acorn... Acorn knop, a knop or protuberance on the stem of a drinking glass, tooled in the form of an acorn. |
3. Naut. ‘A conical piece of wood fixed on the uppermost point of the spindle, above the vane, to keep it from being blown off from the mast-head.’ Craig 1847.
| 1769 in W. Falconer Dict. Marine. |
4. sea-acorn = acorn-shell.
| 1764 Croker Dict. Arts. s.v., Acorn, a genus of shell-fish, of which there are several species. |
5. attrib. (in sense 2.) in
acorn-bread,
acorn crop,
acorn meal, etc.;
acorn-cup, the cupulate involucre in which the acorn grows;
acorn-barnacle = acorn-shell;
acorn squash N. Amer., a variety of squash having a longitudinally grooved and ridged surface;
acorn-sugar = quercite;
acorn tube,
valve Radio, a small acorn-shaped valve;
acorn-worm, a worm-like animal of the class Enteropneusta, having an acorn-shaped anterior end to its body.
| 1882 J. Hawthorne Fortune's Fool i. xxiii. (in Macm. Mag. XLVI. 44) What I need now is a bellyful of venison and acorn-bread. |
| 1859 Coleman Woodl. Heaths & Hedges 7 Swine took his place in the woods and to them the acorn crop..has for past years been resigned. |
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 31 All there Elues for feare Creepe into Acorne cups, and hide them there. 1758 Needham in Phil. Trans. L. 783 Their shape..when they are extended resembles nearly that of an acorn-cup. 1836 Praed Poems (1865) I. 412 She sent him forth to gather up Great Ganges in an acorn-cup. a 1845 Hood The Elm Tree iii. 16 With many a fallen acorn-cup. |
| 1937 A. H. Verrill Foods Amer. gave World 84 There are the..scalloped squashes, vegetable marrows, Hubbard squashes and the little deeply-fluted diamond or acorn-squashes. 1981 Farmstead Mag. Winter 38/1 The type [of squash] most readily found on supermarket shelves is the acorn squash. |
| 1899 Syd. Soc. Lex., Quercite, the so-called acorn-sugar or oak-sugar. |
| 1934 Electronics Sept. 282/1 The ‘acorn’ tubes which amplify, oscillate, and detect waves as short as 40 centimeters have now reached the stage of practical manufacture. |
| 1937 Nature 2 Jan. 34/2 The very small ‘acorn’ valve for the transmission and reception of telephony on a wave-length of about one metre. |
| 1889 Cent. Dict. Acorn-worm. 1955 Sci. News Let. 9 Apr. 232/1 Known popularly as the acorn worm, the balanoglossus is found throughout the sea-coasts of the world. 1959 A. Hardy Fish & Fisheries v. 116 The most primitive of all chordate animals, the acorn-worm Balanoglossus and its relatives. |
Add:
[2.] c. In the proverb
great (or tall) oaks from little acorns grow and
varr.; hence used allusively to suggest the significant (and often unforeseen) consequences arising from small beginnings.
| 1584 A. Fleming Withals's Dict. Lat. & Eng. (rev. ed.) sig. D4, Of a nut springes an hasill, and of an Akorn an hie or tall oke. 1732 T. Fuller Gnomologia 197 The greatest Oaks have been little Acorns. a 1795 D. Everett in C. Bingham Columbian Orator (1797) 58 Large streams from little fountains flow, Tall oaks from little acorns grow. 1923 Times 13 Oct. 7/2 Here in England, as nowhere else in the world, ‘great oaks from little acorns grow’. 1976 New Yorker 1 Mar. 81/2 It is from such embarrassing acorns that Parkers grow. 1995 Wire Jan. 20/1 Great oaks from tiny acorns: in 1994 alone, Guy's output has been overwhelming, with the albums After The Rain, Portraits [etc.]..containing some of the most compulsive music to be heard all year. |
▪ II. acorn, v. Now
dial. or
rare.
(
ˈeɪkɔːn)
[f. acorn n.] intr. To hunt for or gather acorns. Only as
vbl. n. and
pres. pple.,
esp. in
phr. to go acorning.
| 1821 R. Wilbraham Cheshire Gloss. in Archaeologia XIX. 18 To go aitchorning is to go gathering Acorns. The pigs are gone o' aitchorning. 1842 W. P. Hawes Sporting Scenes I. 152 It might be an unmanageable colt,..or a stray porker acorn-ing. 1932 Times Educ. Suppl. 29 Oct. (Home & Classroom section) p. iv/1 At this time of the year many children have a half-day off from school..to ‘go acorning’, and sell what they collect to pig keepers. |