"P van Rijckevorsel"
[snip]
Only in the last few centuries it has been demoted to an animal food.

donald j haarmann schreef
Not in North America!

+ + +
Surely use as a human food is not widespread in the US today?
+ + +

Stem "corn"?!
Not what my dictionary says!!
OE æern, æcren - mast, oak mast.
donald j haarmann

+ + +
Wrong dictionary.
As words go this one has got a fairly respectable age:
it is pre-Norman invasion.
Look again.
PvR

P van Rijckevorsel wrote:

Wrong dictionary.
As words go this one has got a fairly respectable age:
it is pre-Norman invasion.
Look again.
PvR

From Dictionary.com:

Word History: A thoughtful glance at the word acorn might produce the
surmise that it is made up of oak and corn, especially if we think of
corn in its sense of “a kernel or seed of a plant,” as in peppercorn.
The fact that others thought the word was so constituted partly accounts
for the present form acorn. Here we see the workings of the process of
linguistic change known as folk etymology, an alteration in form of a
word or phrase so that it resembles a more familiar term mistakenly
regarded as analogous. Acorn actually goes back to Old English æcern,
“acorn,” which in turn goes back to the Indo-European root *g-, meaning
“fruit, berry.”


-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
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P van Rijckevorsel wrote:

Wrong dictionary.
As words go this one has got a fairly respectable age:
it is pre-Norman invasion.
Look again.
PvR

==============
Quegmo Backwater schreef
From Dictionary.com:
Word History: A thoughtful glance at the word acorn might produce the
surmise that it is made up of oak and corn, especially if we think of
corn in its sense of "a kernel or seed of a plant," as in peppercorn.
The fact that others thought the word was so constituted partly accounts
for the present form acorn. Here we see the workings of the process of
linguistic change known as folk etymology, an alteration in form of a
word or phrase so that it resembles a more familiar term mistakenly
regarded as analogous. Acorn actually goes back to Old English æcern,
"acorn," which in turn goes back to the Indo-European root *g-, meaning
"fruit, berry."

+ + +

Great.
Well, on the upside we have agreement that it is a pre-1066 word, that
linguistic tradition has it that acorn is derived from "ac" and "corn" and
that the word "acorn" is based on the edibility.

On the downside (point of contention) this linguistic tradition is supposed
to be wrong?

What is certain is that the computer monitor is not friendly to
Indo-European signs.

So I suppose I am to go in search of a few good Indo-European dictionaries.
Just great ...
PvR

"P van Rijckevorsel"


Stem "corn"?!
Not what my dictionary says!!
OE æern, æcren - mast, oak mast.
donald j haarmann

+ + +
Wrong dictionary.
As words go this one has got a fairly respectable age:
it is pre-Norman invasion.
Look again.
PvR


-------------
NB "OE" = Old English

--
donald j haarmann — independently dubious

donald j haarmann schreef
Stem "corn"?!
Not what my dictionary says!!
OE æern, æcren - mast, oak mast.
donald j haarmann

"P van Rijckevorsel" wrote
+ + +
Wrong dictionary.
As words go this one has got a fairly respectable age:
it is pre-Norman invasion.
Look again.
PvR

===============
donald j haarmann - independently dubious:
NB "OE" = Old English

+ + +
aka Anglo-Saxon, pre-Norman invasion (for those not knowing this, eg in the
US: the Norman invasion was in 1066 and came from France)
PvR

NB more fully (www.wordorigins.org/histeng.htm):
"Old English (500-1100 AD)
West Germanic invaders from Jutland and southern Denmark: the ANGLES (whose
name is the source of the words England and English), SAXONS, and Jutes,
began populating the British Isles in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. They
spoke a mutually intelligible language, similar to modern Frisian--the
language of northeastern region of the Netherlands--that is called Old
English. Four major dialects of Old English emerged, Northumbrian in the
north of England, Mercian in the Midlands, West Saxon in the south and west,
and Kentish in the Southeast."

I get this from the OED

acorn (_______). Forms: 1 æcern, æcirn, (2Â*3 ? akern); 4Â*7 akern, (4
hakern); 4 pl. acres, atcherne; 4Â*5 acharn(e; 4Â*6 achorn(e, 5 akerne,
ackerne, accharne, acorun, accorne, hockorn; 5Â*7 acorne, oke-corne; 6
akecorne, okehorne, acquorn, eykorn; 6Â*7 akehorne, akorne, acron; 7
oke-corn, akorn; 6Â* 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. 4____ 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.
c1000 Ælfric Gen. xliii. 11 Bringað Þam men lac, somne dæl tyrwan &
huni_ and stor, and æcirnu & hnite.
c1374 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.
c1000 Ælfric Gloss. in Wright’s Voc. 33 & 80 Glans, æcern.
Ibid. 284 Glandix, æceren.
c1350 Will. Palerne 1811 Hawes, hepus & hakernes, & Þe hasel-notes.
1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls. Ser.) I. 195 (The Athenians) tau_te..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.
c1440 Prom. Parv. 361 Ocorn or acorn [1499 occarne, or akorne] frute
of an oke.
Ibid. 6 Accorne or archarde, frute of the oke.
a1500 Nominale in Wright’s 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.
a1682 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.
c1821 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 E. Lodge Illustr. Brit. Hist. (1791) II. cliv.
243, I did send yowre Honor..a cup wth 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.
a1884 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, crop, 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.D. 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.
a1845 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.

Pretty impressive.

Let me summarize this:
Present day "acorn" is so formed because acorns were such an important food
that the word "corn" just HAD to be part of it. This only came about in the
sixteenth century, when it was felt that "acorn" was formed from "ac" and
"corn" which, it is now felt, was actually incorrect.

Thus "acorn" is a corruption of an "Old English" word that actually had a
different derivation, which is not entirely clear

End of summary

Nice. This seems to be a clear example of the fact that corruptions of words
can become widespread names (should make David Hershey happy) if these are
made early enough.

What would appear to remain is the mess surrounding the Indo-European stem
"ak" which is thought to be the source of Oak, Acer, Acacia, Akropolis, etc
PvR


d buebly schreef

I get this from the OED

acorn (_______). 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. 4____ 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.
c1000 Ælfric Gen. xliii. 11 Bringað Þam men lac, somne dæl tyrwan &
huni_ and stor, and æcirnu & hnite.
c1374 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.
c1000 Ælfric Gloss. in Wright's Voc. 33 & 80 Glans, æcern.
Ibid. 284 Glandix, æceren.
c1350 Will. Palerne 1811 Hawes, hepus & hakernes, & Þe hasel-notes.
1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls. Ser.) I. 195 (The Athenians) tau_te..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.
c1440 Prom. Parv. 361 Ocorn or acorn [1499 occarne, or akorne] frute
of an oke.
Ibid. 6 Accorne or archarde, frute of the oke.
a1500 Nominale in Wright's 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.
a1682 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.
c1821 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 E. Lodge Illustr. Brit. Hist. (1791) II. cliv.
243, I did send yowre Honor..a cup wth 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.
a1884 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, crop, 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.D. 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.
a1845 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.

"P van Rijckevorsel" wrote in message
...
Pretty impressive.

Let me summarize this:
Present day "acorn" is so formed because acorns were such an important
food
that the word "corn" just HAD to be part of it. This only came about in
the
sixteenth century, when it was felt that "acorn" was formed from "ac" and
"corn" which, it is now felt, was actually incorrect.

Thus "acorn" is a corruption of an "Old English" word that actually had a
different derivation, which is not entirely clear

End of summary

Nice. This seems to be a clear example of the fact that corruptions of
words
can become widespread names (should make David Hershey happy) if these are
made early enough.

What would appear to remain is the mess surrounding the Indo-European stem
"ak" which is thought to be the source of Oak, Acer, Acacia, Akropolis,
etc
PvR


It is an interesting point that is raised, although, PvR, the word
"akropolis" looks somewhat out of place.

In tracing back acorn eating to Greek legend, say prior to c.1200 BC, it
seems the ancient Arkadians, ie the descendents of Arkas, were the
ubiquitous "acorn-eaters" of ancient Greece. The Arkadians are synonymous
with the Axaians of the Iliad, since they both ruled over the Peloponnese at
the same time. Hence "oak" could have derived from "ak", which could have
been "ax", which could have been "arka"...

Greek references to "acorn-eaters" derives mostly from "balanos-phagos"
meaning "acorn-eating" where the Latin "valonia" (as in valonia oak) derives
from the Greek "balanos". The "phegos" was the oak of Zeus (Dios) and is
also labelled "edible oak". The Latin "aesculus" which Pliny used to refer
to the "phegos" and which is often translated as "winter-oak" appears to
mean "esculent" or "edible", and which is in line with the Greek "phagos"
meaning "edible".

But it seems that it was not the acorn at all which the ancient Greek and
Latin writers were referring, but rather another fruit of the oak, which was
generally referred to as "drus karpon" meaning "oak fruit", which was the
original fruit of civilisation and of kings. Unfortunately its identity is
so cloaked in mystery that it is almost virtually impossible to tell its
identity without upsetting people, so I wont even try.


d buebly schreef

I get this from the OED

acorn (_______). 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. 4____ 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.
c1000 Ælfric Gen. xliii. 11 Bringað Þam men lac, somne dæl tyrwan &
huni_ and stor, and æcirnu & hnite.
c1374 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.
c1000 Ælfric Gloss. in Wright's Voc. 33 & 80 Glans, æcern.
Ibid. 284 Glandix, æceren.
c1350 Will. Palerne 1811 Hawes, hepus & hakernes, & Þe hasel-notes.
1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls. Ser.) I. 195 (The Athenians) tau_te..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.
c1440 Prom. Parv. 361 Ocorn or acorn [1499 occarne, or akorne] frute
of an oke.
Ibid. 6 Accorne or archarde, frute of the oke.
a1500 Nominale in Wright's 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.
a1682 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.
c1821 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 E. Lodge Illustr. Brit. Hist. (1791) II. cliv.
243, I did send yowre Honor..a cup wth 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.
a1884 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, crop, 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.D. 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.
a1845 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.

"P van Rijckevorsel"
Pretty impressive.

Let me summarize this:
Present day "acorn" is so formed because acorns were such an important
food that the word "corn" just HAD to be part of it. This only came about in
the sixteenth century, when it was felt that "acorn" was formed from "ac"
and
"corn" which, it is now felt, was actually incorrect.

Thus "acorn" is a corruption of an "Old English" word that actually had
a different derivation, which is not entirely clear

End of summary

Nice. This seems to be a clear example of the fact that corruptions of
words can become widespread names (should make David Hershey happy) if these
are made early enough.

What would appear to remain is the mess surrounding the Indo-European
stem "ak" which is thought to be the source of Oak, Acer, Acacia, Akropolis,
etc
PvR

========
o8TY schreef
It is an interesting point that is raised, although, PvR, the word
"akropolis" looks somewhat out of place.

+ + +
Well, not too badly out of place. It is one of the Greek words that is
wellknown in English. The stem "ak" is thought to be considerably older than
the Greek and likely the derivation of oak from it is not through the Greek.
However it all is shrouded in mystery
PvR
+ + +

In tracing back acorn eating to Greek legend, say prior to c.1200 BC, it
seems the ancient Arkadians, ie the descendents of Arkas, were the
ubiquitous "acorn-eaters" of ancient Greece. The Arkadians are synonymous
with the Axaians of the Iliad, since they both ruled over the Peloponnese at
the same time. Hence "oak" could have derived from "ak", which could have
been "ax", which could have been "arka"...

Greek references to "acorn-eaters" derives mostly from "balanos-phagos"
meaning "acorn-eating" where the Latin "valonia" (as in valonia oak) derives
from the Greek "balanos". The "phegos" was the oak of Zeus (Dios) and is
also labelled "edible oak". The Latin "aesculus" which Pliny used to refer
to the "phegos" and which is often translated as "winter-oak" appears to
mean "esculent" or "edible", and which is in line with the Greek "phagos"
meaning "edible".

But it seems that it was not the acorn at all which the ancient Greek and
Latin writers were referring, but rather another fruit of the oak, which was
generally referred to as "drus karpon" meaning "oak fruit", which was the
original fruit of civilisation and of kings. Unfortunately its identity is
so cloaked in mystery that it is almost virtually impossible to tell its
identity without upsetting people, so I wont even try.


d buebly schreef

I get this from the OED

acorn (_______). 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. 4____ 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.
c1000 Ælfric Gen. xliii. 11 Bringað Þam men lac, somne dæl tyrwan &
huni_ and stor, and æcirnu & hnite.
c1374 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.
c1000 Ælfric Gloss. in Wright's Voc. 33 & 80 Glans, æcern.
Ibid. 284 Glandix, æceren.
c1350 Will. Palerne 1811 Hawes, hepus & hakernes, & Þe hasel-notes.
1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls. Ser.) I. 195 (The Athenians) tau_te..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.
c1440 Prom. Parv. 361 Ocorn or acorn [1499 occarne, or akorne] frute
of an oke.
Ibid. 6 Accorne or archarde, frute of the oke.
a1500 Nominale in Wright's 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.
a1682 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.
c1821 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 E. Lodge Illustr. Brit. Hist. (1791) II. cliv.
243, I did send yowre Honor..a cup wth 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.
a1884 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, crop, 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.D. 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.
a1845 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.