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chestnut

noun
/ˈt͡ʃɛs(t)nʌt/UK/ˈt͡ʃɛs(t)ˌnʌt/US

Etymology

The noun is a contraction of chest(en) (“(obsolete) chestnut tree; fruit of this tree, chestnut”) + nut. Chesten is a late variant of chesteine (obsolete), from Middle English chesten, chesteine, chasteine, chesteyne (“chestnut tree (Castanea sativa); fruit of this tree; wood of this tree”), from Old French chastaigne, chastaine (French châtaigne), from Latin castanea (“chestnut tree; fruit of this tree”) (whence Old English ċisten), from Ancient Greek κᾰστᾰ́νειᾰ (kăstắneiă), a variant of κᾰ́στᾰνᾰ (kắstănă, “sweet chestnut”); for further etymology, see that entry. Doublet of castanet. Noun sense 4 (“joke, phrase, etc., which has been repeated so often as to have grown ineffective or tiresome”) may refer to an 1816 play, The Broken Sword, by William Dimond (1781 – c. 1837), in which one character begins to relate a story in which a boy slips down from a cork tree, and another interrupts him to say that he had previously repeated the story many times, and always mentioned a chestnut tree. The adjective is probably from an attributive use of the noun; compare French (of hair) châtain (“chestnut”) (from châtaigne (“a chestnut”)) and marron (“brown”) (from marron (“a horse chestnut or chestnut”)).

  1. derived from κᾰστᾰ́νειᾰ
  2. derived from castanea — “chestnut tree; fruit of this tree”
  3. derived from chastaigne,chastaine
  4. inherited from chesten

Definitions

  1. An edible nut (technically a fruit) of the Spanish chestnut or sweet chestnut tree…

    An edible nut (technically a fruit) of the Spanish chestnut or sweet chestnut tree (Castanea sativa); also (chiefly preceded by a descriptive word), a nut from a related shrub or tree; or a similar nut from an unrelated plant.

    • Of trouth the cheſtain trees brynge forth the ſoft ſwete cheſtnutte out of the ſharpe pricking ⁊ hard huſke.
    • I am not he Camilla that will leaue the Roſe, bicauſe I pricked my finger, or forſake the golde that lyeth in the hot fire, for that I burne my hande, or refuſe the ſweet Cheſnut, for that it is couered with ſharpe huſkes.

  2. In full chestnut tree

    In full chestnut tree: the shrub or tree that bears this nut, the Spanish chestnut or sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa); also (chiefly preceded by a descriptive word), a shrub or tree of the genus Castanea.

    • The Cheſnut delighteth in ſhadowie places and mountaynes whoſe ſituation is towardes the North.
    • Theſe cheſnuts ranged in correſponding lines, / And though himſelf ſo poliſh'd, ſtill reprieves / The obſolete prolixity of ſhade.

  3. Things resembling a chestnut fruit in appearance or colour.

    • Roſ[alind]. I'faith his haire is of a good colour. / Cel[ia]. An excellent colour: / Your Cheſſnut vvas euer the onely colour: […]
    • She can see, by the colour of my beard, that my hair would be a fine chesnut still.
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. Chiefly in old chestnut

      Chiefly in old chestnut: a joke, meme, phrase, ploy, etc. which has been repeated so often as to have grown ineffective or tiresome; a cliché.

      • UNIQUE II Break My Stride […] Yep, this is a dance-leaning cover of the Matthew Wilder '80s pop chestnut. It has already saturated radio airwaves throughout Europe, with a number of programmers here already giving it positive feedback.
      • Take greed. He [Donald Trump]'s been cited many times for what now has become a chestnut: "The point is, you can't be too greedy."

    2. Of a deep reddish-brown colour, like that of a chestnut fruit (noun sense 1).

      • chestnut hair
      • […] Aill, from mountains freed, / Down from the lakes did raving come; / Each wave was crested with tawny foam, / Like the mane of a chesnut steed.
      • Hortense, with her rich chestnut locks so luxuriantly knotted, plaited, twisted, as if she did not know how to dispose of all their abundance, with her vermillion lips, damask cheek, and roguish laughing eye.

    3. A surname.

      • And not to rub salt in wounds, when it comes to making mincemeat of the competition, American Joey Chestnut is still top banana.

The neighborhood

Derived

chestnut-bark disease, chestnut blight, chestnut canker, chestnut coal, Chestnut Hill, chestnutlike, chestnut rose, chestnutting, chestnutty, liver chestnut, old chestnut, pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire, sea chestnut

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for chestnut. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA