cashew
cashew Lexical Profile
cashew Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An edible, kidney-shaped seed harvested from a tropical evergreen tree native to South America, widely consumed as a snack or culinary nut.
"She added a handful of roasted cashews to the spicy vegetable stir-fry for extra crunch."
A tropical evergreen tree of the sumac family, native to Brazil but widely cultivated in tropical regions like India and Vietnam, which bears the fleshy cashew apple and its attached seed.
"The farmer planted a new grove of cashews because the region's hot climate and distinct dry season provided the perfect growing conditions."
Word Nuance & Usage
While culinarily treated as a nut, the cashew is botanically a seed that grows externally on the bottom of a fleshy pseudo-fruit called the cashew apple; its shell contains a toxic, skin-irritating resin similar to poison ivy, which is why cashews are never sold entirely raw in their shells.
Word Origin & Etymology
From Portuguese 'caju', which derived from the Tupi word 'acajú', referring to the nut that produces itself.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.