What is "chestnut"

colorful \colorful\ adj.

1. having striking color. Opposite of colorless.

   Note: [Narrower terms: changeable, chatoyant, iridescent, shot; deep, rich; flaming; fluorescent, glowing; prismatic; psychedelic; red, ruddy, flushed, empurpled]

   Syn: colourful.

2. striking in variety and interest. Opposite of colorless or dull. [Narrower terms: brave, fine, gay, glorious; flamboyant, resplendent, unrestrained; flashy, gaudy, jazzy, showy, snazzy, sporty; picturesque]

3. having color or a certain color; not black, white or grey; as, colored crepe paper. Opposite of colorless and monochrome.

   Note: [Narrower terms: tinted; touched, tinged; amber, brownish-yellow, yellow-brown; amethyst; auburn, reddish-brown; aureate, gilded, gilt, gold, golden; azure, cerulean, sky-blue, bright blue; bicolor, bicolour, bicolored, bicoloured, bichrome; blue, bluish, light-blue, dark-blue; blushful, blush-colored, rosy; bottle-green; bronze, bronzy; brown, brownish, dark-brown; buff; canary, canary-yellow; caramel, caramel brown; carnation; chartreuse; chestnut; dun; earth-colored, earthlike; fuscous; green, greenish, light-green, dark-green; jade, jade-green; khaki; lavender, lilac; mauve; moss green, mosstone; motley, multicolor, culticolour, multicolored, multicoloured, painted, particolored, particoloured, piebald, pied, varicolored, varicoloured; mousy, mouse-colored; ocher, ochre; olive-brown; olive-drab; olive; orange, orangish; peacock-blue; pink, pinkish; purple, violet, purplish; red, blood-red, carmine, cerise, cherry, cherry-red, crimson, ruby, ruby-red, scarlet; red, reddish; rose, roseate; rose-red; rust, rusty, rust-colored; snuff, snuff-brown, snuff-color, snuff-colour, snuff-colored, snuff-coloured, mummy-brown, chukker-brown; sorrel, brownish-orange; stone, stone-gray; straw-color, straw-colored, straw-coloured; tan; tangerine; tawny; ultramarine; umber; vermilion, vermillion, cinibar, Chinese-red; yellow, yellowish; yellow-green; avocado; bay; beige; blae bluish-black or gray-blue); coral; creamy; cress green, cresson, watercress; hazel; honey, honey-colored; hued(postnominal); magenta; maroon; pea-green; russet; sage, sage-green; sea-green] [Also See: chromatic, colored, dark, light.]

   Syn: colored, coloured, in color(predicate).

1560s, from chesten nut (1510s), with superfluous nut (n.) + Middle English chasteine, from Old French chastain (12c., Modern French châtaigne), from Latin castanea "chestnut, chestnut tree," from Greek kastaneia, which the Greeks thought meant either "nut from Castanea" in Pontus, or "nut from Castana" in Thessaly, but probably both places are named for the trees, not the other way around, and the word is borrowed from a language of Asia Minor (compare Armenian kask "chestnut," kaskeni "chestnut tree"). In reference to the dark reddish-brown color, 1650s. Applied to the horse-chestnut by 1832.\n

\nSlang sense of "venerable joke or story" is from 1885, explained 1888 by Joseph Jefferson (see "Lippincott's Monthly Magazine," January 1888) as probably abstracted from the 1816 melodrama "The Broken Sword" by William Dimond where an oft-repeated story involving a chestnut tree figures in an exchange between the characters "Captain Zavior" and "Pablo":\n\nZav. Let me see
--ay! it is exactly six years since that peace being restored to Spain, and my ship paid off, my kind brother offered me a snug hammock in the dwelling of my forefathers. I mounted a mule at Barcelona and trotted away for my native mountains. At the dawn of the fourth day's journey, I entered the wood of Collares, when, suddenly, from the thick boughs of a cork-tree
--\n
\nPab. [Jumping up.] A chesnut, Captain, a chesnut!\n
\nZav. Bah, you booby! I say, a cork!\n
\nPab. And I swear, a chesnut. Captain, this is the twenty-seventh time I have heard you relate this story, and you invariably said, a chesnut, till now.\n\nJefferson traced the connection through William Warren, "the veteran comedian of Boston" who often played Pablo in the melodram

1. \n

1. Of a deep reddish-brown colour, like that of a chestnut. n. 1 A tree or shrub of the genus ''Castanea''. 2 The nut of this tree or shru

2. 3 (context uncountable English) A dark, reddish-brown colour/color. 4 A reddish-brown horse. 5 (context uncountable English) The wood of a chestnut tree. 6 (context idiomatic English) (Often "old chestnut") A worn-out meme; a phrase, et

3. so often repeated as to have grown tiresome. 7 A round or oval horny plate found on the inner side of the leg of a horse or other animal, similar to a birthmark on a human. 8 (context UK English) horse-chestnut

1. n. wood of any of various chestnut trees of the genus Castanea

2. any of several attractive deciduous trees yellow-brown in autumn; yield a hard wood and edible nuts in a prickly bur [syn: chestnut tree]

3. edible nut of any of various chestnut trees of the genus Castanea

4. a small horny callus on the inner surface of a horse's leg

5. a dark golden-brown or reddish-brown horse

adj. used of hair; of a golden brown to reddish brown color; "a chestnut horse"; "chestnut hair"

The chestnut group is a genus (Castanea) of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.

The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.

Chestnut is a color, a medium reddish shade of brown (displayed right), and is named after the nut of the chestnut tree. An alternate name for the color is badious.

Indian red is a similar but separate and distinct color from chestnut.

Chestnut is also a very dark tan that almost appears brown.

Chestnut is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Cyrus Chestnut, jazz pianist
• Jacob Chestnut, one of the two United States Capitol Police officers killed in the line of duty on July 24, 1998
• Joey Chestnut, competitive eater from San Jose, California
• Morris Chestnut, American film and television actor

The chestnut, also known as a night eye, is a callosity on the body of a horse or other equine, found on the inner side of the leg above the knee on the foreleg and, if present, below the hock on the hind leg. It is believed to be a vestigial toe, and along with the ergot form the three toes of some other extinct Equidae. Darren Naish dissents from this belief, noting that the chestnut is "not associated with the metacarpus or metatarsus, the only places where digits occur"

Chestnuts vary in size and shape and are sometimes compared to the fingerprints in humans. For purposes of identification some breed registries require photographs of them among other individual characteristics. However, because chestnuts grow over time and horse grooms often peel or trim off the outer layers for neatness, their appearance is subject to change.

Chestnut is a hair coat color of horses consisting of a reddish-to-brown coat with a mane and tail the same or lighter in color than the coat. Genetically and visually, chestnut is characterized by the absolute absence of true black hairs. It is one of the most common horse coat colors, seen in almost every breed of horse.

Chestnut is a very common coat color but the wide range of shades can cause confusion. The lightest chestnuts may be mistaken for palominos, while the darkest shades can be so dark as to resemble a black coat. Chestnuts have dark brown eyes, black skin, and a coat that is entirely devoid of true black hairs. Typical chestnuts are some shade of red or reddish brown. The mane, tail, and legs may be lighter or darker than the body coat, but are never truly black. They may have pink skin beneath any white markings under the areas of white hair, and if such white markings include one or both eyes, the eyes may be blue.

Chestnut is produced by a recessive gene. Unlike many coat colors, chestnut can be true-breeding; that is, the mating between two chestnuts will produce chestnut offspring every time. Some breeds, such as the Budyonny, Suffolk Punch, and Haflinger are exclusively chestnut. Other breeds, such as the Belgian are predominantly chestnut. However, a chestnut horse need not have two chestnut parents. For example, Friesian horses have been selected for many years to be uniformly black, but on rare occasions chestnuts are born. The Ariegeois pony is another example.

Chestnut is a genus of deciduous tree and shrub species Castanea. The name also refers to the edible nut these trees produce.

Chestnut (also chesnut) may also refer to:

In architecture:

• Chestnut Lodge, historic building in Rockville, Maryland
• Chestnut Residence, university residence operated by University of Toronto, Canada

In botany:

• American chestnut, one of the most important forest trees throughout much of the eastern United States and southeasternmost Canada
• Chestnut blight, fungal disease
• Chestnut oak, species of oak in the white oak group
• Chinese chestnut
  • Castanea mollissima, species of chestnut native to China
  • Sterculia monosperma, also known as Thai chestnut
• Guiana chestnut, a name for Pachira aquatica
• Horse chestnut, member of the genus Aesculus
• Japanese chestnut, species of chestnut native to Japan and South Korea
• Malabar chestnut, a name for Pachira aquatica
• Swamp chestnut oak, species of oak in the white oak section Quercus
• Sweet chestnut, species of chestnut native to southeastern Europe and Asia Minor

In geography:

• Chestnut, Illinois, United States
• Chestnut Grove, North Carolina, United States

In zoology:

• Chestnut (coat), color of horse
• Chestnut (horse anatomy), a natural callousity on the legs of horses
• Chestnut dunnart, dunnart that was described by Van Dyck in 1986
• Chestnut sparrow, sparrow that likes dry savanna
• Chestnut teal, dabbling duck found in southern Australia
• Chestnut woodpecker, resident breeding bird in South America
• Horse-chestnut leaf miner, a moth.

In other fields:

• Chesnut (surname)
• Chestnut (surname)
• Chestnut (color), reddish brown
• Chestnut hair, reddish brown hair
• Operation Chestnut, failed British raid by 2 Special Air Service during World War II
• Chestnut (joke), British slang for an old or stale joke
• Chestnut (music), piece of music in symphonic or other repertoire that has been played so much that many people are tired of it

Chestnut is a British slang term for an old joke, often as old chestnut. The term is also used for a piece of music in the repertoire that has grown stale or hackneyed with too much repetition.

A plausible explanation for the term given by the Oxford English Dictionary is that it originates from a play named "The Broken Sword" by William Dimond, in which one character keeps repeating the same stories, one of them about a cork tree, and is interrupted each time by another character who says: Chestnut, you mean . . . I have heard you tell the joke twenty-seven times and I am sure it was a chestnut. The play was first performed in 1816, but the term did not come into widespread usage until the 1880s.