Walnuts

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of tree nut characterized by a hard shell that encloses edible seeds known for their rich flavor and nutritional content
2. Seeds from a specific species of tree producing a rounded kernel inside a rough shell, often consumed as a snack or used in cooking
3. Edible fruits of certain trees commonly used in various dishes, known for their health benefits, including healthy fats and antioxidants

Etymology: "Walnuts" is the plural of "walnut", and the singular carries the more revealing story. The name began as a description of where the nut came from: Old English "wealhhnutu" combined "wealh", meaning "foreign" (the word the Anglo-Saxons used for Celts and Britons, and the root of "Welsh"), with "hnutu", meaning "nut". The Proto-Germanic ancestor, *walhahnuts, meant literally "foreigner-nut." The same label appears across the Germanic languages: Dutch "walnoot", German "Walnuss", Swedish "valnöt" and Icelandic "valhneta" all share it. The nut was, in other words, a stranger imported from somewhere beyond the speakers' own lands, and its name preserved that outsider status long after people stopped thinking of it as foreign. English has a parallel in the Welsh onion, a plant whose name likewise uses "Welsh" to mean "foreign."