Walnut

How to spell walnut

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce walnut

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does walnut mean?

1. nounThe edible wrinkled nut of a tree of the genus Juglans, or the tree and its prized hardwood timber.

Walnut in a sentence

• She chopped a single walnut into the salad for extra crunch.

• The antique desk was made of polished walnut with a deep grain.

Where does walnut come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Walnut comes from the Old English wealhhnutu, which literally meant 'foreign nut'. The first element, wealh, meant 'foreign' or specifically 'Welsh' and 'Celtic', the same word the Anglo-Saxons used for the Romanised peoples to their south and west; it survives today in the name 'Wales'. The Anglo-Saxons used the label to mark this nut out as the imported, Roman, southern variety, in contrast to the native hazelnut that already grew in England. Over centuries the unwieldy wealhhnutu was worn down to the simple 'walnut', losing the awkward middle of the word entirely. The plant itself, with its rich timber and edible kernel, had spread through Europe from Persia, so the 'foreign' tag was well earned, and the modern spelling hides that the 'wal' once meant 'foreign' rather than anything to do with a wall.

How the word is built

• wal- (from Old English wealh: foreign)
• nut (Old English hnutu)