A ground nut or “monkey-nut,” which grows profusely in South Virginia and North Carolina.
1826. We were presented with a sample of pea-nuts raised in this village. They are the first ever raised in this place. Nuts of this description usually sell here for $2. or $2.50 per bushel.—Mass. Spy, Oct. 11, from the Saratoga Sentinel.
1835. Conceive me then curling my fingers in the shaggy pines on the top of the hill designated, and wrenching it from its roots as a Lilliputian would a peanut!—C. F. Hoffman, ‘A Winter in the Far West,’ ii. 202 (N.E.D.).
