Dictionary

piñon pine en · NOUN

Etymology

From Spanish piñón.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) Any of several species of North American pines in Pinus subsect. Cembroides that bear edible seeds (pine nuts), especially Pinus edulis; the nut pine.
   • The sage and thickets of oak and brakes of alder gave place to piñon pine growing out of rocky soil. 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 5, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:
   • He inhaled deeply, smelling piñon pines and sage. 2001, Eric Nylund, Halo: The Fall of Reach, New York: Del Rey, →ISBN, page 217:
   • Love said he liked this place because he could see so much from it, and had stopped here many times across the decades, to lean against a piñon pine and sort through the country, like an astronomer with the whole sky above him sorting through the stars. 1986, John McPhee, Rising from the Plains; reprinted in Annals of the Former World, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998, page 383:

Forms

Synonyms

pinyon (North American pines) · pinon (North American pines) · piñon (North American pines)

Translations (2)

tew tʼoe (North American pine producing edible seeds) · par wahappin (North American pine producing edible seeds)