hickory

Etymology

It is a shortening of pohickory,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the colonists' name for a milky liquid made from ground hickory nuts and later for the tree itself.^[2] That word is from Powhatan pawcohiccora, also powcohicora,^[2][4][6] a word of Virginia Algonquian that Merriam-Webster glosses as food prepared from pounded nuts and water,^[4][7] and the American Heritage Dictionary, spelling it pocohiquara, as a drink made of pressed hickory nuts.^[8] Etymonline and Barnhart say the source language was perhaps Powhatan,^[9][10] and Etymonline notes that the word is sometimes said to have named this species of walnut, though Bright calls it the milky drink.^[9] Hendrickson tells how the colonists at Jamestown dropped the first part of the native name, applied it first to the drink and the nuts, and then to the tree.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A North American tree of the genus Carya, allied to the walnut: 1670, in a letter of N. Carteret.^[2][4] Barnhart dates it to 1671 as an Americanism,^[10] and Etymonline to the 1670s.^[9] The longer form is earlier: pockerchicory about 1618 and pohickery in 1653, according to Barnhart,^[10] and the OED records pohickory for the drink about 1612 and for the tree from 1644.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The tree's tough, heavy wood was valued from the start, and the word soon named the wood itself (1676) and the nut (1705).^[2][9] Because the wood made good switches and walking sticks, a hickory became a cane or stick (1748, according to Barnhart) and a switch for punishing children,^[10][2] and in American slang from 1854 to hickory someone was to thrash them.^[12][4] The toughness of the wood gave Andrew Jackson his nickname Old Hickory, recorded from 1815.^[9][10] From 1750 hickory was also a hard-wearing striped cotton twill for work shirts.^[2] From 1840 the name was transferred to Australian and New Zealand trees with similar wood.^[2][4] In Scots and Northumberland dialect the adjective meant cross-grained or ill-humoured,^[13] and in south-eastern Massachusetts it was used of rough, stormy weather.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1612 – pohickory, a milky drink made from ground hickory nuts.^[2]
• c. 1618 – the form pockerchicory.^[10]
• 1670 – the tree.^[2][4] Barnhart dates it to 1671.^[10]
• 1676 – the wood of the tree.^[2]
• 1705 – the nut.^[2]
• 1748 – a cane or walking stick.^[10]
• 1750 – a striped cotton twill for work shirts.^[2]
• 1805 – a stick or switch of hickory wood.^[2] Barnhart dates the switch to 1824.^[10]
• 1815 – Old Hickory, nickname of Andrew Jackson.^[9]
• 1840 – Australian and New Zealand trees with similar wood.^[2]
• 1854 – verb, to thrash, in American slang.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of several mainly North American deciduous trees of the genus Carya, in the walnut family, with hard wood and edible nuts.^[15][4][2]
2. The hard, tough wood of such a tree: an axe handle of hickory.^[15][4][2]
3. The nut of such a tree; a hickory nut.^[2]
4. A switch or walking stick made of hickory wood.^[15][4][2]
5. A hard-wearing cotton twill with narrow stripes, used for work shirts.^[2]
6. Any of various Australian or New Zealand trees with similar wood.^[2][4]

Adjective

1. Made of hickory: hickory chairs.^[4]
2. Tough and unyielding, like hickory wood.^[4]

Verb

1. To beat with a switch; to thrash.^[4][12]

Word family

• shagbark hickory

Related words

• pohickory

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
12. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
15. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin