cup morel
- noun
- /kʌp mɔːˈrɛl/
- Specialized
- The forest floor was dotted with cup morels, their saucer-shaped bodies catching morning light.
Examples
-
Because cup morel can be confused with toxic species, proper identification is crucial.
-
After the rain, she found a large cup morel near the old oak tree.
-
The cup morel is a delicacy in many gourmet dishes.
-
Have you ever tried a cup morel?
-
After the rain, she found a large cup morel near the old oak tree.
-
The forest floor was dotted with cup morels, their saucer-shaped bodies catching morning light.
-
The cup morel is a delicacy in many gourmet dishes.
Synonyms
A brown mushroom with a spongy cap full of holes that you can eat
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a morel with a cup-shaped fruiting body' is directly derivable from combining 'cup' (bowl-shaped) as a modifier with 'morel' (a type of mushroom); a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a cup-shaped morel. This follows the regular modifier+head noun compounding pattern found in English (and similarly in many languages), so the composition is immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Cup morel gets its name from how it looks: the top is like a small cup or saucer with wrinkles inside. The word morel is the common name for this wrinkled mushroom, so the name means an 'edible' mushroom with a 'cup-shaped' body.