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The Problem

The Word "Acorn"

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Acorns

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Acorns- What is with this Name?

Curiously, the word for their fruit is not the same word for the tree. Apples grow on apple trees, hickory nuts and pine nuts grow on hickories and pines, but acorns grow on oaks. Anyway, this odd disconnection between the parent and fruit names goes back to Old English. Acorn in Old English is " æcern", which in turn goes back to the Indo-European root *g–, meaning “fruit, berry.” *

* The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000