acorn

Meaning

Noun

• The fruit of the oak, being an oval nut growing in a woody cup or cupule.
• A cone-shaped piece of wood on the point of the spindle above the vane, on the mast-head.
• See acorn-shell.
• A testicle.

Origin

• From Middle English acorn, an alteration (after corn) of earlier *akern, from Old English æcern ("acorn, oak-mast"), from Proto-Germanic *akraną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ógeh₂ ("berry"). Cognate with Scots aicorn, Saterland Frisian Äkkene, Dutch aker, Danish agern, Low German ecker; Welsh eirin ("plums"), Breton irin ("plum"), Irish airne ("sloe"), Lithuanian úoga, Russian я́года ("berry").