big shagbark
- noun
- Specialized
:
gran carya peluda
- The big shagbark tree in our backyard produces delicious nuts.
Examples
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We identified the big shagbark by comparing its nuts to those of the regular shagbark hickory.
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Wildlife in the area depend on the nuts from the big shagbark as a food source.
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The forest included several tall big shagbark trees, each producing an abundance of large nuts.
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Have you seen a big shagbark before?
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The forest included several tall big shagbark trees, each producing an abundance of large nuts.
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Wildlife in the area depend on the nuts from the big shagbark as a food source.
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We identified the big shagbark by comparing its nuts to those of the regular shagbark hickory.
Synonyms
A tree from eastern North America with large nuts and shaggy bark
A hickory tree that grows in the eastern United States and has very large edible nuts
A large tree from the eastern United States that makes very big, sweet nuts
A large hickory tree from the eastern United States with very large nuts
A tree in the eastern United States that makes very large edible nuts
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a simple adjective + noun composition where 'big' clearly modifies 'shagbark' (a type of hickory), so the basic meaning 'a larger/larger-than-average shagbark tree' is directly derivable from the constituents. Size-modifying noun phrases are cross-linguistically common and follow standard composition patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Big shagbark names a kind of hickory tree whose bark peels in long, shaggy strips. Shagbark comes from shag + bark because the bark looks like rough hair, and 'big' points to its larger nuts, so big shagbark means 'a shagbark hickory that has big nuts'.
