Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A deciduous tree (Carya illinoinensis) of the central and southern United States, having deeply furrowed bark, pinnately compound leaves, and edible nuts.
  • noun The smooth, thin-shelled oval nut of this tree.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A North American tree, Hicoria Pecan (Carya olivæ-formis).
  • noun The nut of the pecan-tree, which is olive-shaped, an inch long or over, smooth and thin-shelled, with a very sweet and oily meat. It is gathered in large quantities for the general market.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A deciduous tree Carya illinoinensis of the central and southern United States, having deeply furrowed bark, pinnately compound leaves, and edible nuts.
  • noun A smooth, thin-shelled, edible oval nut of this tree.
  • noun A half of the edible portion of the inside of this nut.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun wood of a pecan tree
  • noun tree of southern United States and Mexico cultivated for its nuts
  • noun smooth brown oval nut of south central United States

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[North American French pacane, from Illinois pakani.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pecan.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • See this map for American pronunciation.

    April 10, 2008