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acorn
The definition of an acorn is a round nut with a wood-like cap that comes from an oak tree.
(noun)An example of an acorn is a nut that a squirrel eats once it has fallen from the oak tree.
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See acorn in Webster's New World College Dictionary
noun
the fruit of the oak tree; an oak nut
Origin: ME akorn < OE æcern, nut, mast of trees; akin to Goth akran, ON akarn < IE base *əg-, to grow, fruit: form infl. by assoc. with OE ac, oak + corn, grain
See acorn in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun
The fruit of an oak, consisting of a single-seeded, thick-walled nut set in a woody, cuplike base.
Origin:
Origin: Middle English akorn
Origin: , from Old English ǽcern
. 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 ǽcern, “acorn,” which in turn goes back to the Indo-European root *ōg-, meaning “fruit, berry.”Learn more about acorn
