walnut: [OE] A walnut is etymologically a ‘foreign nut’. Its name alludes to the fact that the nut was regarded by the Germanic peoples as an exotic import from southern Europe, land of Romans and Celts (their own native nut was the hazel). Prehistoric Germanic *walkhaz originally meant ‘Celtic’ (it was borrowed from Latin Volcae, the name of a Celtic people), but it soon broadened out to include anyone or anything foreign (including the Romans) within its scope.
Its original Celtic connotations survive, however, in Welsh and Walloon (the name of a people of Gaulish origin), both of which go back to *walkhaz. English shares the formation walnut with its Germanic neighbours – German walnuss, Dutch walnoot, Swedish valn?t, and Danish valn?d. => walloon, welsh
walnut (n.)
Old English walhnutu "nut of the walnut tree," literally "foreign nut," from wealh "foreign" (see Welsh) + hnutu (see nut). Compare Old Norse valhnot, Middle Low German walnut, Middle Dutch walnote, Dutch walnoot, German Walnuss, So called because it was introduced from Gaul and Italy, distinguishing it from the native hazel nut. Compare the Late Latin name for it, nux Gallica, literally "Gaulish nut." Applied to the tree itself from 1600 (earlier walnut tree, c. 1400).
雙語例句
1. She watches him plane the surface of a walnut board.
她看著他刨平一塊胡桃木板。
來自柯林斯例句
2. The stool comes in several sizes in walnut or mahogany.
凳子有幾種尺寸，材質分胡桃木和紅木兩種。
來自辭典例句
3. Black walnut is extremely sensitive to damage from late spring frosts.