Abstract
THE explanation of the above name by Mr. E. A. Connell in your last issue, though ingenious, is not, I think, the true one. In a work entitled “Etymons of English Words,” by John Thomson, Edinburgh, 1826, the term is explained thus:— “Horse-Chestnut. The harsh-chestnut; but the F. and the Swedes have translated it as horse.” Following this he gives in support of horse, being the corruption of harsh, horse-faced, harsh-faced, hard-featured, horse-radish, harsh-radish;” and harsh, rough, sour, austere, grating, S. harsk, T. harsch, D. harsk. So that, accepting this explanation, harsh-chestnut is the more scientific term.
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JEREMIAH, J. Derivation of the Term “Horse-Chestnut”. Nature 2, 277 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/002277a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/002277a0
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