coquilla nut
- noun
- Specialized
:
nuez de coquilla
- The artisan crafted a beautiful sculpture from a coquilla nut.
Examples
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The craftsman carved a delicate figure from a coquilla nut.
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Buttons made from coquilla nuts have a smooth, polished appearance.
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Collectors value items made with the unique shell of the coquilla nut.
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Have you ever seen a coquilla nut before?
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The craftsman carved a delicate figure from a coquilla nut.
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Collectors value items made with the unique shell of the coquilla nut.
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Buttons made from coquilla nuts have a smooth, polished appearance.
Synonyms
A hard white seed from some South American palms that people use to make buttons and small carved objects
A hard white seed from a South American palm used to make buttons and small objects
A hard white nut used like ivory for making buttons and small carvings
A hard white seed from a South American palm tree that people polish to make buttons
A large nut from a palm that gives oil and has a hard shell carved like ivory
Surface Forms
Morphology
coquilla + nut
The element 'coquilla' is not a transparent or common English word, so knowing 'nut' alone does not allow a learner to infer the specific meaning (a hard brown South American palm seed used for carving and as an ivory substitute). The expression names a specific botanical/material item and its specialized use is not predictable from its parts, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not reliably understand it.
Etymology
Coquilla nut is the hard brown seed of a South American palm that carvers used like little pieces of 'ivory'. Because its shell is very hard, people carved small buttons and figures from a coquilla nut, so the name now refers to this useful 'ivory' substitute.
