ivory nut
- noun
- /ˈaɪvəri nʌt/
:
nuez de marfil
- Old buttons made from ivory nut are sought after by collectors.
Examples
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She showed me a necklace whose beads were fashioned from ivory nut.
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The craftsman carved intricate designs into the ivory nut.
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The artisan carved a beautiful ivory nut into a small figurine.
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Many ivory nuts are used in traditional crafts in Brazil.
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Old buttons made from ivory nut are sought after by collectors.
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She showed me a necklace whose beads were fashioned from ivory nut.
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Many ivory nuts are used in traditional crafts in Brazil.
Synonyms
A hard white seed from some South American palms that people use to make buttons and small carved objects
A hard white nut used like ivory for making buttons and small carvings
A hard white seed from a South American palm tree that people polish to make buttons
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from 'ivory' (a hard, white carvable material) + 'nut' (a seed), so a learner can infer this refers to a nut that resembles or yields ivory (vegetable ivory). This is a literal, compositional noun–noun compound rather than an idiom, and similar concepts exist in other languages, making it accessible to B1 learners who know the constituents.
Etymology
The noun ivory nut comes from a hard white seed from South America that looks like small elephant ivory. People carved the nut into buttons and beads, so the name joins ivory (the look) and nut (the seed) and now means this hard seed used for making buttons and small objects.
