welshnut

English

Alternative forms

• Welshnut, Welsh-nut

Etymology

From Middle English walsh-note, from Old English wealhhnutu (“walnut”, literally “Welsh-nut”), equivalent to Welsh +‎ nut.

Noun

welshnut (plural welshnuts)

1. (UK dialects, West Country, Dorset, Somerset, dated) A walnut (nut or tree).
   • 1879, William Barnes, “The Welshnut Tree”, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, page 85:

     […] Our tongues do run, O, / Enough to stun, O, / Your head wi' glee by the welshnut tree.

   • 1912, Country Life, volume 31, page 313:

     A wife, a whelp and a Welshnut tree / The more you beat 'em, the better they be.