ACORN

:This article is about the seed; for other meanings of the word, see acorn (disambiguation).

Etymology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word acorn (earlier akerne, and acharn) is derived from a Common Germanic word cognate with the word "acre," and related to corresponding words in other Germanic languages such as Gothic akran, German Eicher, etc., and which had the sense of "fruit of the unenclosed land." The word was applied to the most important forest produce, that of the oak. Chaucer spoke of "achornes of okes". By degrees, popular etymology connected the word both with "corn" and "oak-horn", and the spelling changed accordingly.

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By analogy with the shape, in nautical language, the word acorn also refers to a piece of wood keeping the vane on the mast-head.

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Oxford English Dictionary: The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a comprehensive dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP). Generally regarded as the definitive dictionary of the English language, it includes about 290,500 main entries comprising 350 million printed characters. In addition to the headwords o...

Common Germanic: redirectProto-Germanic...

Gothic: Besides its original meaning, "of or relating to the Goths (Gothos, Getas), a Germanic tribe" and thus the Gothic language and the Gothic alphabet, the word Gothic has been used to refer to distinctly different things:...

ACORN related Images and Photos (experimental)

Flowers in a Corn Field Denmark

A Girl Standing in a Corn Field

A Flock of Wild Turkey Pick Over a Corn Field in Williston Vermont Wednesday March 5 2003