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Glite Dictionary
stone pine

stone pine

7.5
A medium-sized pine tree with a wide top that makes edible pine nuts
  • noun
  • /stoʊn paɪn/
translation icon : pino piñonero
  • The stone pine's broad crown creates a lovely shade on hot summer days.

Examples

  • Fronting the shops and restaurants beyond the deep sidewalks, eighty-foot stone pines spread their branches across the street.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Lilly Wing lives on a street shaded and scented by stone pines.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The stone pines in the park provide a beautiful setting for outdoor gatherings.

  • Many people enjoy gathering pine nuts from the stone pines that grow along the coast.

Synonyms

Pinus pinea
vsstone pine
  • Specialized
8.5

A medium-sized pine tree with an umbrella-shaped top that makes edible seeds called pine nuts

is the cultivated Mediterranean tree grown for edible seeds rather than the scientific name
umbrella pine
vsstone pine
  • UK
8.2

A medium-sized tree with a flat, wide top and edible seeds like almonds

is the common cultivated tree term focusing on seed use rather than poetic name
European nut pine
vsstone pine
  • UK
6.9

A medium-sized tree from southern Europe with a wide top that makes edible seeds like small almonds

is the same cultivated tree idea but named more generally for its nut value

Surface Forms

stone pine singular
stone pines plural

Morphology

stone + pine

The compound structure makes it clear to a B1 learner that this is a kind of pine tree (stone + pine = a pine type), so the basic referent is transparent. However, the specific species-level sense and the link between 'stone' and the tree's edible seeds (and Mediterranean origin) are lexicalized cultural details that are not predictable from the constituents, so it is not fully transparent.

Etymology

Stone pine may come from the tree's hard, round seeds that look like small stones, so the word stone pictures the seed and pine names the tree. That's why people grow it for its 'pine nuts'.