hickory
(ˈhɪkərɪ)
Forms: 7 hiquery, 7–9 hickery, 8 -erie, -ary, heckarry, 8– hiccory, hickory.
[Shortened from pohickery, recorded as the native Virginian name in 17th c.]
1. a. A North American tree of the genus Carya, closely allied to the walnut, with tough heavy wood, and bearing drupes (mostly with a hard woody rind or husk) inclosing ‘nuts’, the kernels of which in several species are edible. Also hickory-tree.
There are about a dozen species, all natives of N. America, the commonest in the Eastern U.S. being the shell-bark hickory, scaly-bark hickory, or shag-bark h. (C. alba); others are the peccan hickory or Illinois-nut h. (C. olivæformis), common in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, the bitter-nut hickory or swamp h. (C. amara), and the pig-nut hickory, hog-nut hickory, or broom h. (C. porcina).
| [1653 J. Ferrar Reformed Virginia Silk Worm (Cent.), Popler, Plum, Crab, Oake, and Apple tree, Yea, Cherry, and tree called Pohickery.] 1682 T. A. Carolina 7 The Wild Wallnut, or Hiquery Tree. 1737 Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 62 Many hickary-trees which bear a bad kind of walnut. 1748 Phil. Trans. XLV. 543 Hiccory, the most common Tree in their Woods. 1807 P. Gass Jrnl. 14 Here the soil is good, with cotton wood, sycamore, hickory, oak, and white walnut. 1849 Bryant Fountain 23 The hoary trunks Of oak, and plane, and hickory, o'er thee held A mighty canopy. Ibid. 75 Indian maidens..That gather from the nestling heaps of leaves The hickory's white nuts. |
b. In Australia,
transf. to various trees whose wood is similarly used to that of the American tree; the native hickory of N.S. Wales is
Acacia leprosa and
A. Melanoxylon, of Tasmania
Eriostemon squameus (Morris).
| 1884 Boldrewood Melb. Mem. v. 35 The beautiful umbrageous blackwood [Acacia Melanoxylon], or native hickory, one of the handsomest trees in Australia. |
2. a. The wood of the American hickory.
| 1676 T. Glover in Phil. Trans. XI. 628 There is also another sort of Timber called Hickery, that is harder than any Oak. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 234 Her earrings consisted of two pieces of hickery, of the size and shape of drumsticks. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 160/1 Hickory is very tough and elastic. |
b. A rod, stick, or the like, made of this wood.
| 1805 D. Webster Let. 4 May in Priv. Cor. (1857) I. 206, I have only to take my hickory and walk. a 1813 A. Wilson Foresters Poet. Wks. (1846) 220 Grant this, ye powers! to dominies distrest, Their sharp-tailed hickories will do the rest. 1857 W. Boyd Oakw. Old ii, Let him sport his hound and hickory. |
c. Old Hickory, a nickname of Andrew Jackson, President of
U.S. 1829–37.
| 1827 Hallowell (Maine) Gaz. 20 June 2/2 He was in favor of amending the Constitution, so as to let the people vote for Old Hickory. 1860 J. Parton Life A. Jackson I. xxxiv. 381 It was on this homeward march that the nickname of ‘Old Hickory’ was bestowed on the General. 1907 Springfield (Mass.) Republ. 24 Oct. 8, I should not say that Old Hickory was faultless, but Andrew Jackson was as upright a patriot as ever any nation had. 1949 B. A. Botkin Treas. S. Folklore p. xx, In this land..men put daring above discipline and etiquette to give us heroes like the ‘Swamp Fox’, ‘Old Hickory’, [etc.]. 1967 Oxf. Compan. Eng. Lit. (ed. 4) 592/1 Old Hickory, a nickname of Andrew Jackson. |
3. The nut of the American hickory.
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 228/2 These nuts [those of Carya alba] stand second in point of flavour among the hickories. 1882 Garden 11 Nov. 433/3 The Hickory is a fine nut. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. a. simple attrib. Adapted to the growth of hickory; made or consisting of the wood of hickory; resembling this wood, very hard or tough (also
fig.). Also applied
fig. to members of various religious sects.
| 1741 P. Tailfer, etc. Narr. Georgia 97 The Proportion of Pine Barren to either good Swamp or Oak and Hickory Land, is at least six to one. 1800 Med. Jrnl. III. 119 The sparks which were discharged from an hiccory fire. 1829 W. Irving in Life & Lett. (1864) II. 369 As to the old general [Jackson], with all his hickory characteristics, I suspect he has good stuff in him [see 2 c]. 1831 Boston (Mass.) Transcript 12 Dec. 1/1 This assemblage of Shaking Quakers, for so many of them proved, who were only hickory ones till they joined the sett. 1850 Lyell 2nd Visit U.S. II. 22 The soil of the ‘hiccory grounds’ is derived from the disintegration of granitic rocks. 1855 Jrnl. Discourses II. 322 If there are any Gentiles, or hickory ‘Mormons’..write it down. 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer. s.v., A ‘hickory Catholic’..is a flexible, yielding one. 1872 E. Eggleston End of World xxxix. 249 Any member of your class would do better to marry a good, faithful, honest New Light than to marry a hickory Methodist. 1940 Sat. Even. Post 30 Mar. 37/4 He is..referred to by the neighbors as a ‘hickory Amish’ because of some infraction not publicly mentioned, but most likely that of going to a movie. |
b. Comb. hickory-acacia = native hickory of N.S. Wales, 1 b;
hickory-elm, an American elm (
Ulmus racemosa);
hickory-eucalyptus, an Australian tree,
Eucalyptus punctata, with very hard tough wood;
hickory-girdler (also
hickory twig girdler), a longicorn beetle,
Oncideres cingulatus, of the United States;
hickory-horned a., having very tough or hard horns; applied to a kind of caterpillar (see
quot.);
hickory-nut, the nut of the hickory;
hickory-pine, N. American species of pine,
Pinus Balfouriana,
var. aristata, and
P. pungens;
hickory shad, the gizzard-shad (
Dorosoma cepedianum); also, the fall-herring;
hickory shirt (
U.S.), ‘a coarse and durable shirt worn by laborers, made of heavy twilled cotton with a narrow blue stripe or a check’ (
Cent. Dict.);
hickory-tree (see 1).
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxi. (1828) II. 235 This caterpillar (Ceracampa regalis) is called in Virginia the *hickory-horned devil. |
| 1683 Penn Let. 5 July in Gentlem. Mag. (1834) CIV. i. 42 Here is a *hickery nut tree, mighty large, and more tough then our ash. 1802 W. Forsyth Cult. Fruit Trees xxi. (1824) 298 The Hickery Nut from North America. 1886 Pop. Sci. Monthly XXX. 71 (Cent.) The shell-barks, the hickory-nuts par excellence. |
| 1800 B. Hawkins Sk. Creek Country in Georgia Hist. Soc. Colls. (1848) III. 53 The fish taken here are, the *hickory shad, [etc.]. 1871 Amer. Naturalist V. 398 The ‘Hickory Shad’..were also filled with comminuted Crustacea. 1947 B. W. Dalrymple Panfish 341 Then suddenly a big buck Shad of four or five pounds, or a small Alewife or Hickory Shad. |
| 1836 D. Harris in Texas Hist. Assoc. Q. (1900–1) IV. 160 Mother..made two striped *hickory shirts and bags to carry provisions. 1850 L. H. Garrard Wah-To-Yah xii. (1927) 58 Hickory shirts. a 1861 T. Winthrop Canoe & Saddle (1883) iii. 33 Hickory shirts and woolen blankets are worn instead of skin raiment. 1889 Farmer Dict. Amer. s.v., Colloquially hickory has been employed as a nickname for persons and objects partaking of the qualities of the wood of this tree..so hickory shirts for their strength. 1891 B. Harte Fam. Tasajara I. 16 Fumbling in the breast pocket of his hickory shirt. |
| 1882 Garden 27 May 370/2 The *Hickory twig girdler..gnawing deep grooves round the shoots and small branches. |