Nut (fruit)
A nut is a composite of a fruit and a seed, where the hard-shelled fruit does not open to release the seed (indehiscent). So, while a wide variety of dried seeds may be called nuts in a culinary context, only ones that include the indehiscent fruit are considered true nuts in a biology context. The translation of "nut" in certain languages frequently requires paraphrases as the concept is ambiguous.
Most seeds come from fruits which are free of the fruit, unlike nuts such as hazelnuts, hickories, chestnuts and acorns, which have a stony fruit wall and originate from a compound ovary. Culinary usage of the term is less restrictive, and some nuts as defined in food preparation, like pistachios and Brazil nuts, are not nuts in a biological sense. Everyday common usage of the term often refers to any hard-walled, edible kernel as a nut.
Read more about Nut (fruit): Botanical Definition, Culinary Definition and Uses, Nutritional Benefits, Other Uses, Historical Usage
Famous quotes containing the word nut:
“One of the last of the philosophers,—Connecticut gave him to the world,—he peddled first her wares, afterwards, as he declares, his brains. These he peddles still, prompting God and disgracing man, bearing for fruit his brain only, like the nut its kernel.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)