water hickory
- noun
- /ˈwɔːtər ˈhɪkəri/
- US
:
nogal de agua
- The water hickory tree, known for its bitter nuts, grows abundantly along the banks of southern rivers.
Examples
-
Water hickory is common up to its western range boundary in the Mississippi River Valley; water elm is also, but to a much lesser extent.
Academic text (2012) -
Many animals depend on the water hickory for food, particularly its hard, bitter nuts during the fall.
-
In the forest, the water hickory was easily recognized by its narrow leaflets and towering height.
Synonyms
A tree in the southern United States that grows in wet places and has many narrow leaves and bitter nuts
A tree that has many narrow leaflets and bitter nuts and grows in wet parts of the southern United States
A hickory-like tree that grows in the southern United States with many narrow leaves and bitter nuts
Surface Forms
Morphology
water + hickory
The compound is compositional: 'water' modifies 'hickory' to indicate a type of hickory associated with water (habitat or ecological trait), so the overall meaning can be inferred from the constituents. This noun-noun compounding pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows ordinary English modifier + head structure, making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
Water hickory is the name for a hickory tree that lives in wet, swampy ground. The name joins water (for where it grows) and hickory (a nut tree), so it simply means a hickory that grows near water and often has bitter nuts.
