hickory

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: hick=o=ry

CIDE DICTIONARY

hickory, n. [North American Indian pawcohiccora (Capt. J. Smith) a kind of milk or oily liquor pressed from pounded hickory nuts. “Pohickory” is named in a list of Virginia trees, in 1653, and this was finally shortened to “hickory.” J. H. Trumbull.].

 An American tree of the genus Carya, of which there are several species. The shagbark is the Carya alba, and has a very rough bark; it affords the hickory nut of the markets. The pignut, or brown hickory, is the Carya glabra. The swamp hickory is Carya amara, having a nut whose shell is very thin and the kernel bitter.  [1913 Webster]

Hickory shad. (Zoöl.) (a) The mattowacca, or fall herring. (b) The gizzard shad.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

hickory, n. (pl. -ies)
1 any N. American tree of the genus Carya, yielding tough heavy wood and bearing nutlike edible fruits (see PECAN).
2 a the wood of these trees. b a stick made of this.

Etymology

native Virginian pohickery