Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The fruit of an oak, consisting of a single-seeded, thick-walled nut set in a woody, cuplike base.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The fruit of the oak; a one-celled, one-seeded, coriaceous, rounded or elongated nut, the base of which is surrounded by an indurated scaly cup. Acorns have been used for food, and are still eaten in various countries. The sweet acorn is the fruit of the Quercus Ballota of northwestern Africa, and is quite palatable, as are also several American species. All are excellent food for swine.
- n. Nautical, a small ornamental piece of wood, of a conical or globular shape, sometimes fixed on the point of the spindle above the vane, on a masthead, to keep the vane from being blown off.
- n. Any similar ornamental tip.
- n. Same as acorn-shell, 2.
Wiktionary
- n. The fruit of the oak, being an oval nut growing in a woody cup or cupule.
- n. nautical A cone-shaped piece of wood on the point of the spindle above the vane, on the mast-head.
- n. zoology See acorn-shell.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The fruit of the oak, being an oval nut growing in a woody cup or cupule.
- n. (Naut.) A cone-shaped piece of wood on the point of the spindle above the vane, on the mast-head.
- n. (Zoöl.) See Acorn-shell.
WordNet 3.0
- n. fruit of the oak tree: a smooth thin-walled nut in a woody cup-shaped base
Etymologies
- Middle English acorne, an alteration (after corn) of earlier akern, from Old English æcern ("acorn, oak-mast"), from Proto-Germanic *akranan, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ógeh₂- (“berry”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Äkkene, Flemish aker, Danish agern; and with Irish áirne ("sloe"), Lithuanian úoga, Russian ягода (jágoda, "berry"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English akorn, from Old English æcern. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I'm sure acorn is tied in as well as the other fringe groups. jaye”
“Oh sorry, you can only vote twice in Chicago, when acorn is involved and when it is a liberal ...”
“Unless acorn is saying “opps we should not have fired them” in that case, restore their employment, and give um back pay.”
A copy of the ACORN/Breitbart/O’Keefe/Giles suit… - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState
“No one from acorn is in jail or was even arrested.”
“Erroneous as it may be, the substitution involved more than just ignorance: an acorn is more or less shaped like an egg; and it is a seed, just like grains of corn.”
“Some of us, however, see biology as an unfolding of one or a few initial designs, designed to grow into the tree of life as an acorn is designed to grow into an oak.”
“But it also makes sense; as a Pre-Plant, an acorn is like an egg, sort of.”
“One of the highlights of the session was a spirited exchange between the University of Minnesota's Michael Stokes Paulsen and my colleage Jed Rubenfeld on the status of the fetus -- or, as they put it, over whether an acorn is an oak tree.”
“Since then the eggcorn has become something of a mascot at Language Log; today Mark discusses it further, giving the example "hand few" used for handful and quoting Geoff Pullum to the effect that "eggcorns are tiny little poems, a symptom of human intelligence and creativity," and ends with an Update mentioning a fact I should have recalled myself: the word acorn itself contains an earlier misunderstanding.”
“But I think I could make 'fairy jam' of hips and haws in acorn cups now, if any child would be condescending enough to play with me.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘acorn’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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Joe the Plumber
Hilariously over-used political talking points, or slogans, labels, etc. Also humorous misspeak. Whatever you want to do with this please do, as long as your entry jogs a memory. Add away.
...team of maveriks, joe the plumber, pork barrel spending, that one, bridge to nowhere, lipstick, arab, nu-cu-lar, battleground states, i approved this m..., hockey mom, 3 am phone call and 165 more...
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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SCIE - neurology
abducens.....draw..., ablation.....carr..., acetylcholine......., adrenalin.....nea..., afferent.....to c..., agnosia.....no kn..., alar.....wing-like, alexia.....no words, alveus.....canal, amacrine.....no l..., ambidextrous........, ambiguus.....doub... and 701 more...
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Semipoisonous Foods
poisonous unless ...
breadfruit, cassava, manioc, pokeweed, stanleya, snow plant, anemone, lupine, mescal bean, hound's-tongue, wild comfrey, juniper and 5 more...
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Noodles: Slurp 'em up!
Noodles and noodle types from around the world.
Who's hungry?wheat, udon, tea, sweet potato, soba, Sevian, rice vermicelli, rice stick, rice sheet, rice, quenelle, potato and 23 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, A
abaculus, abacus, abaft, abarticular, abbreviate, abeyance, abiding, anthocyanin, antemeridian, arcane, adjure, adduce and 418 more...
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Worthy Wordie
words learnt from the Internet
unthink, meme, logophile, netiquette, onomatopoeia, singularity, oed, johnson's dictionary, man friday, lewis carroll, ontology, pro bono and 143 more...
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The O.U.P. Junior Dictionary Death Row
Another news story about words being removed from a dictionary before their time. See also the list of words added to the dictionary.
carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe, dwarf, elf, goblin, abbey, aisle, altar, bishop and 137 more...
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Gems from 1811 Dictionary of the Vulg...
Citation: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, unabridged from the original 1811 edition, with a foreword by Max Harris. London: Bibliophile Books, 1984.
Original title page: A Dictio...tuzzy-muzzy, half seas over, hugger mugger, hugotontheonbiqui..., doodle sack, juniper lecture, kate, kent street eject..., jack ketch, davy, abel-wackets, three-legged mare and 370 more...
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colleen's words ii
sibilant, sundry, spindle, distaff, device, mortar, pestle, scythe, flail, thresh, frown, elementary and 495 more...
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wreckingball's Words
reprehensible, problematize, crepuscular, deleterious, pestilent, strumpet, draggletail, interrobang, meretricious, systematize, schadenfreude, capricious and 443 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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lemongrass's Words
ineffable, diode, abraxas, neologism, algorithm, schadenfreude, heresiology, vague, cathartic, quixotic, apocrypha?, quintessence and 103 more...
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list1
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, ablution and 106 more...
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Favorite Five-Letter Words
Just what it sounds like. My favorites. Five letters.
ennui, barfy, samba, schwa, beefy, chunk, queef, spasm, skulk, bowel, elbow, fruit and 235 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for acorn.
hernesheir Railway telegraphers' shorthand for "take immediate action and advise". --1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code. Jan 19, 2013
sionnach Apparently, the quantity of acorns has little effect on the quality of squirrel-hunting:
Abundant acorn supply could trigger squirrel boom.
Acorn shortage may mean squirrel hunts better early.
Would this be an example of elasticity or inelasticity? Dec 2, 2008
sionnach Acorn shortage sends squirrels into a tailspin Dec 2, 2008
reesetee Don't feel too bad, slumry. My high school mascot was the beaver. Jul 2, 2007
slumry My highs chool "mascot," if you want to call it that. Imagine: "Go Acorns. Beat those tigers." How could that be? Jun 30, 2007