pecan
[pi-kahn, -kan, pee-kan]
- a tall hickory tree, Carya illinoinensis, of the southern U.S. and Mexico, cultivated for its oval, smooth-shelled, edible nuts: the state tree of Texas.
- a nut of this tree.
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Origin of pecan
1765–75, Americanism; < Mississippi Valley French pacane < Illinois pakani < Proto-Algonquian *paka·n- nut (derivative of *pake·- crack nuts)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for pecan
Contemporary Examples
The rest of Perry, with its population of around 15,000, is ringed by churches, pecan groves, and cotton fields.
INSIDER TIP: Bring a collapsible sports chair and (try to) leave room for pecan pie and bread pudding.
Outside, oak and hickory and pecan trees dotted the rolling grassland.
Girls weighed 90 pounds and barfed after eating a whole half-gallon of butter pecan ice cream.
He moves past the thick-trunked oak and pecan trees, headed for the city bus stop two blocks away.
Historical Examples
The deer is mine, I brought him down over in the pecan grove on the river.
For the Liberty of TexasEdward Stratemeyer
Its flavor can not compare with that of the pecan, hickory, or black walnut.
This class of nuts is adopted to the north where the pecan is unsatisfactory.
We don't have the pecan tree in the North as a native at all.
I presume the Professor will think no change in pecan nuts necessary.
How Doth the Simple Spelling BeeOwen Wister
pecan
- a hickory tree, Carya pecan (or C. illinoensis), of the southern US, having deeply furrowed bark and edible nuts
- the smooth oval nut of this tree, which has a sweet oily kernel
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Word Origin
C18: from Algonquian paccan; related to Ojibwa pagân nut with a hard shell, Cree pakan
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for pecan
n.
1712, paccan "the pecan tree," or a related hickory, from French pacane, from an Algonquian word meaning "nut" (cf. Cree pakan "hard-shelled nut," Ojibwa bagaan, Abenaki pagann, Fox /paka:ni/).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper