oak apple

noun

oak apple

any of various brownish round galls on oak trees, containing the larva of certain wasps

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50

The Arabs received the kermis from Armenia, and the name was originally “Quer-més,” “oak-apple.”

The well-known oak-apple, and the red hairy-looking body found upon hedge-roses, are both galls produced in the same way.

Take as an example C. quercus, which produces the spongy excrescence well known as the common Oak-apple.

The most probable opinion is that intelligence is an excrescence, like an oak-apple.

Oak-Apple Day, I fear, will never again become a general holiday.

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