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Glite Dictionary
🌳 A hickory tree 🥔 An edible root
pignut

pignut

1 9.9
A North American tree that makes bitter edible nuts
  • noun
  • /ˈpɪɡnʌt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : nuez de pignut
  • Among the trees are American elm, cabbage palm, live oak, pignut hickory, southern magnolia, and sugarberry.
  • pignut hickory

Examples

  • While hiking in the forest, I spotted a pignut tree with its distinctive bark.

  • The children collected pignuts from the ground to eat later during their camping trip.

  • The forager showed us how to recognize a pignut hickory by its leaves and nuts.

Synonyms

hickory nut
vspignut
  • US
1 5.6

A hard nut from a North American tree that you can eat

is the specific tree or its nut that is edible yet bitter
pignut hickory
vspignut
  • Specialized
9.8

An American tree with hard bitter nuts and strong wood

also names the edible but bitter nut produced by that tree
Carya glabra
vspignut
  • Specialized
9.9

A North American hickory tree with hard wood and bitter nuts

is the common name people use that also names the nut
brown hickory
vspignut
  • Specialized
9.6

A North American tree with smooth bark and bitter nuts

refers to the species or to its edible but bitter nut

Compounds

bitter pignut
  • Specialized
9.9

A tree in the eastern United States with leaves of seven or nine small parts and thin, very bitter nuts

pignut hickory
  • Specialized
9.8

An American tree with hard bitter nuts and strong wood

Surface Forms

pignut singular
pignuts plural

Morphology

pignut = pig + nut (semi-transparent) = pig + nut

The components 'pig' + 'nut' are obvious, but knowing it refers to a particular hickory tree and its botanical sense is not directly derivable by a learner.

Etymology

Pignut comes from the simple idea 'pig' + 'nut' because pigs used to eat the fallen nuts in the woods. So a pignut is the hickory tree or the nut it makes, a bitter but edible food that animals often fed on.