The white walnut; also, the nut which it bears. The Confederate troops wore clothes dyed with butternut extract (see quot. 1865) and were commonly called “butternuts.”
1781. The butternut furnishes fine, but tender boards; and its bark dyes black, and cures cutaneous disorders.—Samuel Peters, ‘History of Connecticut,’ p. 247 (Lond.).
1788. The butternut tree grows luxuriantly in many places, and is sometimes so large as to measure ten feet in circumference. It is a species of juglans, seemingly not mentioned by Linnæus…. The bark … was much used in the continental army, during the late war, and proved a good substitute for jalap, rhubarb, and other cathartics of foreign production.—American Museum, iv. 435–6: from Dr. Mitchell’s Journal.
1792. Oil-nut or butter-nut.… The extract of [its bark] which is one of the best cathartics in the materia medica.… It is an excellent family medicine.—Jeremy Belknap, ‘New Hampshire,’ iii. 101.
1802. The stockings were changed [by spontaneous combustion] to a brown, or what is commonly called a butternut color.—Mass. Spy, Nov. 17.
1810. Two pair home-made pantaloons, the one dark-colored, the other light butternut.—Id., Feb. 21.
1821. The hail stones which were at first small, increased ultimately to the size of a large butternut, and fell with such force, as to drive broken glass, in some instances, eighteen feet from the windows, and lodge it in the opposite walls.—T. Dwight, ‘Travels,’ i. 100.
1822. The timber is maple, ash, hickory, elm, sycamore, butternut, &c.—Mass. Spy, Feb. 6: from The Detroit Gazette.
1830. His were the coarse butternut colored, snug-setting trowsers, reaching only to the calf of his leg.—Mass. Spy, Feb. 24: from The N.Y. Constellation.
1855. We stopped to lunch under a noble butternut tree.—Knick. Mag., xlv. 566 (June).
1855. Myriads of all conceivable-sized and mis-shapen insects, some as large as a butter-nut, and similar in smell and color.—Id., xlvi. 599 (Dec.).
1856. His costume is the national costume of Arkansas, coat, waistcoat, and pantloons of homespun cloth, dyed a brownish yellow, with a decoction of the bitter barked butternut—a pleasing alliteration.—G. H. Derby (‘John Phœnix’), ‘Phœnixiana,’ p. 129.
1859. A stout looking individual in a butternut suit and home-made oat-straw hat, rode up.—Mrs. Duniway, ‘Captain Gray’s Company,’ p. 86 (Portland, Oregon).
1865. From the extreme front, you catch an occasional glimpse of the Rebels—“Butternuts,” as they are termed in camp, from their cinnamon-hued homespun, dyed with butternut extract.—A. D. Richardson, ‘The Secret Service,’ p. 256 (Hartford, Conn.).
