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Webster 1913 Edition

Pecan

Pe-can′

(pē̍-kăn′)
,
Noun.
[Cf. F.
pacane
the nut.]
(Bot.)
A species of hickory (
Carya olivæformis
), growing in North America, chiefly in the Mississippi valley and in Texas, where it is one of the largest of forest trees; also, its fruit, a smooth, oblong nut, an inch or an inch and a half long, with a thin shell and well-flavored meat.
[Written also
pacane
.]

Definition 2024

pecan

pecan

English

Alternative forms

Noun

pecan ‎(plural pecans)

  1. A deciduous tree, Carya illinoinensis, of the central and southern United States, having deeply furrowed bark, pinnately compound leaves, and edible nuts.
    • 1885, Howard Seely, A Ranchman's stories, page 154:
      And away on the farther bank, a motte of huge pecans, standing like giant sentinels over the dwarfed landscape, filled the eye with remote vistas in their shady, twilight aisles. It was very still.
    • 1978 April, in the Texas Monthly, page 51:
      Within its ornamental fence, the 8/10-acre property includes several of the largest live oaks in the area — plus huge pecans and stately magnolias.
  2. A smooth, thin-shelled, edible oval nut of this tree.
    • 1982, Beth Henley, Crimes of the heart, page 17:
      MEG. […] (Meg takes out two pecans and tries to open them by cracking them together.) Come on ... Crack, you demons! Crack!
      LENNY. We have a nutcracker!
      MEG. (Trying with her teeth.) Ah, where's the sport in a nutcracker? Where's the challenge?
  3. A half of the edible portion of the inside of this nut.
    • 2005, in The Condensed Encyclopedia of Healing Foods (Joseph Pizzorno, Lara Pizzorno; Atria Books, ISBN 978-0-7434-7402-3):
      Each shell contains two pecans, usually plump and oblong in shape, although some varieties are round or pointed.

Translations

See also

References

  1. ↑ 2005, Webster's New College Dictionary II (ISBN 9780618396016), page 829: [Algonquian paccan]
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 The Dialect Survey, and Joshua Katz' maps of it
  3. ↑ “pecan” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.
  4. 1 2 "pecan" in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2008, WordReference.com
  5. 1 2 3 “pecan” in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Online.
  6. ↑ Christopher Davies, Divided by a Common Language: A Guide to British and American English (2005-7)
  7. ↑ Claude E. Kantner, Variant Louisiana pronunciations of the word "pecan" (1944)
  8. ↑ Burkhard Dretzke, Modern British and American English pronunciation (2008)

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpe.kan/

Verb

pecan

  1. Second-person plural (ustedes) present indicative form of pecar.
  2. Third-person plural (ellos, ellas, also used with ustedes?) present indicative form of pecar.

Etymology

Borrowed into English from the French word pacane and at first spelt paccan. The French word derives from an Algonquian word,[1] perhaps Miami (Illinois) pakani. Compare Cree pakan ‎(“hard nut”), Ojibwe bagaan, Abenaki pagann, bagôn, pagôn ‎(“nut; walnut, hazelnut”).

a 68-year-old pecan tree, Carya illinoinensis
pecan nuts on a tree
a pecan nut
the edible portions of a pecan nut

Pronunciation

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