chestnut

Definition

An edible nut (technically a fruit) of the Spanish chestnut or sweet chestnut tree (Castanea sativa); also (chiefly preceded by a descriptive word), a nut from a related shrub or tree; or a similar nut from an unrelated plant.

Etymology

The noun is a contraction of chest(en) (“(obsolete) chestnut tree; fruit of this tree, chestnut”) + nut. Chesten is a late variant of chesteine (obsolete), from Middle English chesten, chesteine, chasteine, chesteyne (“chestnut tree (Castanea sativa); fruit of this tree; wood of this tree”), from Old French chastaigne, chastaine (French châtaigne), from Latin castanea (“chestnut tree; fruit of this tree”) (whence Old English ċisten), from Ancient Greek κᾰστᾰ́νειᾰ (kăstắneiă), a variant of κᾰ́στᾰνᾰ (kắstănă, “sweet chestnut”); for further etymology, see that entry. Doublet of castanet. Noun sense 4 (“joke, phrase, etc., which has been repeated so often as to have grown ineffective or tiresome”) may refer to an 1816 play, The Broken Sword, by William Dimond (1781 – c. 1837), in which one character begins to relate a story in which a boy slips down from a cork tree, and another interrupts him to say that he had previously repeated the story many times, and always mentioned a chestnut tree. The adjective is probably from an attributive use of the noun; compare French (of hair) châtain (“chestnut”) (from châtaigne (“a chestnut”)) and marron (“brown”) (from marron (“a horse chestnut or chestnut”)).

Example Sentences

• "Of trouth the cheſtain trees brynge forth the ſoft ſwete cheſtnutte out of the ſharpe pricking ⁊ hard huſke."
• "The Cheſnut tree, is a very great, high & thicke tree, not much vnlike the Walnut tree. […] amongſt the leaues at the top of yͤ branches grow the Cheſnuttes whiche are browne without, ſomewhat flat almoſt after the faſhion of a hart, and playne and ſmooth polliſhed: they be alſo incloſed in ſhelles and very rough and prickley huſkes lyke to a Hedgehogge or Urchin, the which huſkes do open of their owne accorde when the Cheſnuttes be ripe ſo that they fall out of theie ſayde huſkes of their owne kinde."
• "I am not he Camilla that will leaue the Roſe, bicauſe I pricked my finger, or forſake the golde that lyeth in the hot fire, for that I burne my hande, or refuſe the ſweet Cheſnut, for that it is couered with ſharpe huſkes."

Related Words