Forms: 6 chesten nut, chest nut, chestnutte, chestnot-(tree), chesse nut(te, ches-nut, chesnutte, 6–7 chesse-nut, 6–8 chest-nut, 7 chessenut, 8 chessnut, 6– chestnut, chesnut. [f. chesten, late form of CHESTEINE + NUT. Chesten-nut was soon reduced to chestenut, chestnut, and chesnut: the last was the predominant form (82 per cent. of instances examined) from 1570 to c. 1820, and is used in all the editions of Bailey; chestnut was adopted by Johnson, and prevails in current use.]
1. The large edible seed or ‘nut’ of the chestnut-tree (see 2), two or more of which are inclosed in a prickly pericarp or ‘burr.’
1519. Horman, Vulg., xvii. 165. I haue getherde chesten nuttis.
1534. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), Fj a. The chestain tres bring forth the soft swete chest nut.
1570. Levins, Manip., 195. A chesnutte, castanea.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 138. Chestnuts of all wilde fruits are the best and meetest to be eaten.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 365. That will … refuse the sweete Chesnut, for that it is couered with sharpe huskes.
1580. Baret, Alv., C 442. A chesten nut.
1585. Lloyd, Treas. Health, Introd. 2. Take … the quantitye of a Chesse Nutte.
1714. Gay, Trivia, III. 46. Boars … on Westphalia’s fatt’ning Chest-nuts fed.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 258. Chesnuts … afford a very good Nourishment.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 238. Young chesnuts … afforded … a matter which appeared to be a combination of albuminous matter and tannin.
1861. Bryant, Poems, Third of November, iii. Children … Gathering tawny chestnuts.
2. The tree that bears these, Castanea vesca, N.O. Corylaceæ, now growing naturally all over Southern Europe, though said to have been introduced, within the historical period, from Asia Minor. Both the tree and the ‘nut’ are also called Spanish or Sweet Chestnut.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 729. The Chesnut delighteth in shadowie places.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, vii. § 1. The Chesnut of which Pliny reckons many kinds.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 263. These chesnuts ranged in corresponding lines.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., II. 65. A chesnut, or any other tree with pointed leaves.
1814. Southey, Roderick, xv. The chesnut’s fretted foliage grey.
1875. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, Comic, Wks. (Bohn), III. 204. An oak or a chestnut undertakes no function it cannot execute.
b. The wood of the chestnut-tree.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 262.
3. Applied to the tree Æsculus Hippocastanum, or to its seed; more fully called HORSE-CHESTNUT.
1832. Tennyson, Miller’s Dau., vii. Those three chestnuts near, that hung In masses thick with milky cones.
1871. E. C. G. Murray, Member for Paris, III. 172 (Hoppe). The spreading chestnuts … dotted the spongy sand … with white flowerlets like snow-flakes.
Mod. Newspr. Yesterday was ‘Chestnut Sunday’ at Bushey Park, and the day being fine, the chestnuts were visited by admiring crowds.
† 4. Earth chestnut: the roundish edible tuber of Bunium flexuosum (including B. Bulbocastanum), or the plant itself; = EARTH-NUT. Obs.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 579. The small Earth Chestnut…. The roote … in taste … is muche lyke to the Chestnut.
1597. Gerard, quoted by Britten & Holl.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., Earth-nut, or Earth-chestnut, Bunium flexuosum.
† 5. Name of a variety of apple. Obs.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 223. Apples … Pear-Apple, Cardinal, Winter-Chestnut. Ibid., 232.
6. The hard knob in the skin of the horse at the inner side of the fore-legs; supposed to represent the thumb-nail of other animals. Cf. CASTOR4.
1859. Rarey, Art Taming Horses, iv. 45. To tame the horse, sometimes using the chestnut of his leg, which they dry, grind into powder, and blow into his nostrils.
1876. Steel, Equine Anat., 208. The circular horny process or chestnut found opposite the inferior part of the radius.
1888. Veterinarian, May, 304. Another organ in process of disappearance is that piece of horn inside the fore-arm, where it is termed the chestnut, and that inside the hock, where it is termed the castor; it corresponds to the finger-nail of the thumb of our hand, and of the foot of the five-toed ancestor of the horse.
7. slang. A story that has been told before, a ‘venerable’ joke. Also attrib.
[Origin unknown: said to have arisen in U.S. The newspapers of 1886–7 contain numerous circumstantial explanations palpably invented for the purpose. A plausible account is given in the place cited in quot. 1888.]
1886. in Dram. Rev., 27 March, 86/2. Minnie Palmer will give £1,000 to any one who will submit to her an idea for legitimate advertising…. Chestnut ideas not wanted.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 10 June, 6/2. This story is what the Americans would call a ‘chestnut.’
1887. Sat. Rev., 1 Oct., 467. There are, of course, good things here, and some venerable chestnuts.
[1889. in J. Hatton, Remin. Toole, I. 32, note. ‘When suddenly from the thick boughs of a cork-tree—’ … ‘A chestnut, Captain; a chestnut.’ ‘Bah!… Booby, I say a cork-tree!’ ‘A chestnut,’ reiterates Pablo. ‘I should know as well as you, having heard you tell the tale these twenty-seven times.’]
B. as adj. 1. Of the color of a chestnut; deep reddish-brown.
1656. Cowley, Davideis, III. (1677), 98. Merabs long hair was glossy chestnut brown.
1684. Lond. Gaz., No. 1960/4. A Chesnut Sorrel Gelding.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, I. xxviii. Like the mane of a chestnut steed.
1835. A. Fonblanque, Eng. under 7 Administr., III. 271. As much akin … as a horse chesnut proverbially is to a chesnut horse.
a. 1855. C. Brontë, Professor, I. xi. 187. Her rich chestnut locks.
b. absol. = Chestnut color.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. iv. 12. His haire is of a good colour … Your Chessenut was euer the onely colour.
1832. L. Hunt, Sir R. Esher (1850), 12. My hair would be a fine chesnut still.
1878. Morley, Diderot, II. 122. Her hair of resplendent chestnut.
c. Short for chestnut horse. (colloq.)
[See chestnut-coloured 1636 in C below.]
1839. Lever, H. Lorrequer, ii. 20 (Hoppe). The horses were dark chestnuts, well matched.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, I. ii. 41. Mrs. Tregonell’s landau … with a pair of powerful chestnuts.
1883. A. Robson, Old World Idylls, 27. Jumped on his chestnut.
C. attrib. and Comb., as chestnut-bloom, -bud, -burr, -colo(u)r, -husk, -muncher, -seller, shade, tree; chestnut-brown, -colo(u)red, -crested, -red, -winged, adjs.; chestnut-bread, bread made with the meal of chestnuts; chestnut-oak, Quercus sessiliflora and other species.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s Field, 65. That islet in the *chestnut-bloom.
1814. Southey, Roderick, XI. The *chesnut-bread was on the shelf.
1656. [see B. 1].
1797. Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), I. 79. Rooks are found of the erucæ of the hedge-chafer, or *chesnut brown beetle.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., I. 52. Fur chesnut brown back and head.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 450. The Acorns and *Chesnut-buds.
1842. Tennyson, Lancelot & Guinevere, ii. Drooping chestnut-buds.
1874. E. P. Roe (title), Opening a *Chestnut Burr.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 338. Men are of *chestnutte colour at the ryuer of Plata.
1636. Massinger, Gt. Dk. Florence, III. i. (R.). I mean the roan, Sir, And the brown bay; but for the *chesnut-coloured, [etc.].
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand. (1804), 137. He had … chesnut-coloured hair.
1868. Ld. Houghton, Select. fr. Wks., 220. The *chesnut-crested plain.
1830. Scott, Demonol., ix. 314. The *chestnut-muncher in Macbeth.
1882. Garden, 16 Dec., 535/1. Bright *chestnut-red.
1883. R. Burton, in Academy, No. 577. 366/2. *Chestnut-sellers from Friuli.
1535. Coverdale, Gen. xxx. 37. Iacob toke staues of grene wyllies, hasell and of *chestnottrees.
1816. Keith, Phys. Bot., I. 58. Shady avenues of Chesnut-trees.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 15 July, 5/1. Small *chestnut-winged butterflies.
