pecan

English

Alternative forms

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
Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): [piːˈkɑːn] (pronunciation used by 32% of speakers in the US; common everywhere except New York, New England and the coastal Southeast)[2]
    • Rhymes: -ɑːn
  • IPA(key): [pɪˈkɑːn] (used by 23% of speakers in the US, mostly in the southern Midwest; also used in the UK)[2][3][4]
  • IPA(key): [ˈpiːkæn] (used by 14% of speakers in the US; common in New York, New England and the coastal Southeast; also used in the UK, Australia, and Canada)[2][5][6][7]
  • IPA(key): [ˈpiːkɑːn] (used by 13% of speakers in the US, mostly in the Upper Midwest)[2]
  • IPA(key): [piːˈkæn] (used by 7% of speakers in the US, not common in any region)[2]
    • Rhymes: -æn
  • IPA(key): [ˈpɪkæn] (used almost exclusively in coastal New England, and not the most common pronunciation even there)[2]
  • IPA(key): [pəˈkɔːn], [pɪˈkɔːn] (used in Louisiana)[8]
  • IPA(key): [pəˈkɑːn] (sometimes used in the US when the word is unstressed)[5]
  • IPA(key): [pɪˈkæn] (used in the UK and Canada; also used by some US speakers)[9][5][7]
  • IPA(key): [ˈpiːkn̩] (used in the UK[4])
  • Audio (AU)(file)

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:
      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, page 829: [Algonquian paccan]
  2. The Dialect Survey, and Joshua Katz' maps of it
  3. “pecan” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  4. "pecan" in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2008, WordReference.com
  5. “pecan” in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary.
  6. Christopher Davies, Divided by a Common Language: A Guide to British and American English (2005-7)
  7. 1983, Gage Canadian Dictionary
  8. Claude E. Kantner, Variant Louisiana pronunciations of the word "pecan" (1944)
  9. Burkhard Dretzke, Modern British and American English pronunciation (2008)

Anagrams

Spanish

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈpekan/, [ˈpekãn]

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.
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