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Glite Dictionary
acorn cup

acorn cup

8.4
A hard hollow base at the bottom of an acorn that partly holds the nut
  • noun
  • /ˈeɪkɔrn kʌp/
translation icon : copa de bellota
  • Children collected acorn cups from the forest floor for their craft project.

Examples

  • Botanists explained how the acorn cup protects the seed during development.

  • The squirrel clutched the acorn by its acorn cup and nibbled eagerly.

  • The acorn cup fell from the tree.

  • Many acorn cups littered the forest floor.

  • Children collected acorn cups from the forest floor for their craft project.

  • The squirrel clutched the acorn by its acorn cup and nibbled eagerly.

  • Botanists explained how the acorn cup protects the seed during development.

Synonyms

cupule
vsacorn cup
  • Specialized
9.9

A hard cup-shaped base that holds and partly covers an acorn

is the same structure but specific to one nut type rather than many fruits

Surface Forms

acorn cup singular
acorn cups plural

Morphology

acorn + cup

The meaning is directly compositional: 'acorn' names the nut and 'cup' denotes a hollow, bowl-shaped part, so 'acorn cup' refers to the cup-shaped base of an acorn. This modifier+head compound follows a standard, cross-linguistically common pattern and should be immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words, despite being a somewhat technical botanical term.

Etymology

Acorn cup comes from the tiny, hard cup that holds an acorn on the oak tree. This little cup partly wraps and protects the nut, so the name now means the 'cup-shaped' base that holds the seed.