Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Acorn |
AcornNoun1. Fruit of the oak tree: a smooth thin-walled nut in a woody cup-shaped base. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "acorn" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1596. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | Seeing acorns in dreams, is portent of pleasant things ahead, and much gain is to be expected. To pick them from the ground, foretells success after weary labors. For a woman to eat them, denotes that she will rise from a station of labor to a position of ease and pleasure. To shake them from the trees, denotes that you will rapidly attain your wishes in business or love. To see green-growing acorns, or to see them scattered over the ground, affairs will change for the better. Decayed or blasted acorns have import of disappointments and reverses. To pull them green from the trees, you will injure your interests by haste and indiscretion. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Slang in 1811 | ACORN. You will ride a horse foaled by an acorn, i.e. the gallows, called also the Wooden and Three-legged Mare. You will be hanged.--See THREE-LEGGED MARE. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
An acorn is the fruit of the oak tree. By analogy with the shape, in nautical language, the word also refers to a piece of wood keeping the vane on the mast-head. The etymology of the word (earlier akerne, and acharn) is discussed in the Oxford English Dictionary. It is derived from a word (Goth akran) which meant "fruit," originally "of the unenclosed land," and so of the most important forest produce, the oak. Chaucer speaks of "achornes of okes." By degrees, popular etymology connected the word both with "corn" and "oak-horn," and the spelling changed accordingly.
Cultural aspects
Acorns take up to three years to mature and appear only on adult trees, and thus are often a symbol of patience and the fruition of long, hard labor. For example, an English proverb states that Great oaks from little acorns grow, urging the listener to wait for maturation of a project or idea. A German folktale has a farmer outwit Satan, to whom he has promised his soul, by asking for a reprieve until his first crop is harvested; he plants acorns and has several years to enjoy first.
Based on article from 1911 EB For computers, see Acorn, Ltd.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Acorn."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn, Ltd's first general purpose home computer based on their own ARM RISC CPU, and spawned a family of very capable machines with various options.
Description; Early models
The first models were released in June 1987, as the 300 and 400 series. The machines differed primarily in that the 400 series included more slots (four instead of two) and a ST506 controller for an internal hard drive. Both models included the Arthur OS (later versions to be called RISC OS, see below), BBC BASIC and an emulator for Acorn's earlier BBC Micro, and were mounted in excellent two-part cases with a small central unit, monitor on top, and a separate keyboard and three-button mouse.
Four models were initially released with different amounts of memory, the A305, A310, A410 and A440. The 300 and 400 were followed by a number of machines with minor changes and upgrades:
- (A500 - 4 MB RAM, Archimedes development machine, never sold [1])
- A305 - 512 KB RAM
- A310 - 1 MB RAM
- A410 - 1 MB RAM
- A420 - 2 MB RAM, 20 MB hard disk
- A440 - 4 MB RAM, 40 MB hard disk
- (A4xx/1 editions with improved memory controller)
- A540 - 4 MB RAM, 100 MB hard Disk
- (A680 and M4 - 8 MB RAM, RISCiX development machines, never sold)
- R140 - 4 MB RAM, 52 MB hard disk, RISCiX UNIX workstation
- R260 - 8 MB RAM, 100 MB hard disk, RISCiX UNIX workstation
- R225 - 4 MB RAM, RISCiX UNIX network computer
The A3000 and A5000
Work began on an upgrade to the Arthur OS as Arthur 2, but with the release of the Hollywood movie of the same name the OS was renamed to RISC OS 2. This seemed like a good time to introduce a number of new machines as well, and the 300 series was replaced with the new A3000 series in May, 1989.
Unlike the 300, the 3000's were mounted in single-part cases with the keyboard attached to the main unit. This makes them harder to place on a desk because the monitor cannot be put on top. It also eliminated one of the slots, there simply wasn't room for it. Oddly the 400 series continued on after switching a few options. It seems unlikely that the less expensive 3000 style case would be able to save any real amount of money given that the 400 continued to be produced.
The A5000 had a two part case, but a different design to the earlier models. It used the new ARM3 processor while the A3000 had the older ARM2. Both the A3000 and the A5000 ran RISC OS 3. In summary:
- A3000 - 1 MB RAM
- A5000 - 1 MB RAM, 40/80 MB hard disk (and the A5000 Alpha Variant - 2/4 MB RAM, 80/120 MB hard disk)
A new range and a laptop
In 1991, a new range was produced, using the ARM250 processor (an ARM2 with integrated memory/video controller; not as fast as the ARM3, though) and RISC OS 3.1. The A30x0 had a one-piece design, similar to the A3000, while the A4000 looked like a slightly slimmer A5000.
There was also a laptop, the A4, and later an updated A5000 (using a 33MHz ARM3 instead of 25MHz).
In summary, minus the A5000:
The A7000, despite its name's being reminiscent of the Archimedes naming-conventions, was actually a low-end RiscPC – the line of RISC OS computers that succeded the Archimedes in 1994.
- A3010 - 1 MB RAM (and the A3010 Special Edition)
- A3020 - 1 MB RAM, 60MB hard disk
- A4000 - 2 MB RAM, 80MB hard disk
- A4 - 2 MB RAM (A5000 hardware in a laptop case)
Significance and impact
The Archimedes was in fact the most powerful home computer during the late 1980s; it could run a piece of software faster and with better visual quality than the more-famous and better selling Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. This was mainly because the ARM CPUs were not untypically three times faster than the competition (the Motorola 68000 family), and thus was able to control and respond to the graphics hardware in a much faster manner.
Despite a technical edge having been fully realised upon the release of RISC OS 2 in 1989, the Archimedes only ever met a moderate success, becoming very much a 'minority' platform outside of niche markets (not unlike the Apple Macintosh). The education markets of the UK, Ireland and Australasia were among the platform's most dominant zones of importance, along with specialised professional work such as radio, medical and train station management. Most students/pupils in the aforementioned countries in the early 90s will have seen/used an Archimedes.
The platform was very unusual in that it was and still is largely unknown outside of a handful of countries where most of its sales occurred. Very few people in Asia or the USA have ever heard of the Archimedes.
External links
- Acorn Archimedes site
- Archie Archimedes emulator
- RedSquirrel ARM machine emulator
- Virtual Acorn - commercial Archimedes / RISC OS emulation package
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Acorn Archimedes."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Acorn squash or Cucurbita pepo is a dark green winter squash with sweet yellow-orange flesh..
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Acorn squash."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Acorn Computers Ltd. was a computer company founded in 1978 by Chris Curry and Herman Hauser in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. They produced a number of computer models over the next decade and would go on to create their own CPU before being bought by Olivetti in 1991. They continued to produce new computer models as a subsidiary of Olivetti until about 1996. In 1998 they abandoned the desktop market and renamed themselves Element 14 (Silicon), in 1999 the company was acquired by Pace.
Between 1978 and 1980 they launched a number of 6502 based computers named System 1 (or System One) through System 5.
The System 1 (originally known simply as the Acorn Microcomputer) was a very small machine built on two cards, one with an LED display and hexpad , and the other with the rest of the computer (including the CPU). Although the machine was based on the eurocard standard, it did not include connectors to allow it to be attached to other eurocard devices. This made it useful for hobby purposes only.
This was addressed in the System 2, which put the CPU card from the System 1 in a 19" eurocard rack which included a number of optional additions. The System 2 typically shipped with keyboard controller, and external keyboard, and a text display interface. The System 3 added floppy support and built-in BASIC, the and System 4 added a larger case with a second drive. The System 5 was largely similar to the System 4, but included a newer 2MHz version of the 6502.
In 1980 they took the internals of the System 3 and placed them inside the case of the external keyboard, creating the much more successful Acorn Atom. Work started almost immediately on a newer version of the Atom known as the Proton with better graphics, expansion abilities, and the 2MHz 6502 as in the System 5.
The success of Atom prompted the British Broadcasting Corporation to include Acorn to the list of computer manufacturers with whom they discussed a contract for a microcomputer suitable to back their TV series The Computer Programme. The BBC awarded Acorn the contract after seeing the prototype Proton, and the machine was renamed as the BBC Microcomputer in November 1981. During the next five years, a number of improved versions of the same design was launched, including the Acorn Electron, BBC Model B+ and BBC Master in several variants.
In 1983 Acorn asked Intel for a sample 80286 processor, and Intel refused. As a result of this refusal, and dissatisfaction with other cpu options such as the Motorola 68000, a team was set up within Acorn, led by Roger Wilson and Steve Furbur, to try and develop a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Chip) processor. Such was the secrecy surrounding this project that when Olivetti took a controlling share of Acorn in 1985 they were not told about the development team until after the negotiations had been finalised. This effort led to the ARM (Acorn RISC Machine) chip.
The first ARM-based product was the ARM Development System, a second processor for the BBC Master which allowed one to write programss for the new system. It cost around £4,000 to buy, and included the ARM processor and three support chips, 4 Mb of RAM and a set of development tools with an enhanced version of BBC BASIC.
The second ARM-based product was the Acorn Archimedes desktop-computer, released in mid-1987. The Archimedes was popular in the United Kingdom, Australasia and Ireland, and was considerably more powerful and advanced than most offerings of the day, but the market was already stratifying into the PC dominated world.
Acorn continued to produce updated models of the Archimedes including a laptop (the A4) and the Risc PC where the top specification included a 200MHz+ StrongARM processor. These were sold mainly into education, specialist and enthusiast markets until Acorn finally abandoned producing desktop-computers in late 1998 in favour of set-top boxes. The last machine (codenamed "Phoebe" or Risc PC 2) was nearly fully developed at the time of the project's abandonment, and therefore was never produced in volume nor sold to the public (notably, numbers of its distinctive yellow case were produced and sold-off cheaply). The operating system developed for Phoebe (codename Ursula or RISC OS 4) was made available to Risc PC users by RISC OS Ltd, which licenced the operating system, and continues to develop, support and sell RISC OS today.
External links:
- The Acorn Atom pre-history
- RISC OS and Acorn pages
- Atom Review documentation of the Atom and lots of extensions made by Dutch Atom clubs
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Acorn, Ltd."
Crosswords: Acorn |
| English words defined with "acorn": acorn cup ♦ Balanoid ♦ Chicken Little, Conferruminated, cupule ♦ family Tuberaceae ♦ Knoppern ♦ Sea acorn ♦ Tuberaceae ♦ Valonia. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "acorn": Acorn Archimedes, Acorn Computer Group, Acorn Computers Ltd., Acorn RISC Machine, Advanced RISC Machine, Advanced RISC Machines Ltd., Adventure Definition Language, ArchBSD ♦ BBC Microcomputer, British Broadcasting Corporation, bwBASIC ♦ call-by-value-result, Compulink Information eXchange, CompuServe Information Service, Crisis Software ♦ Dynamically Linked Library ♦ Econet, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory ♦ Gnome Computers ♦ Minerva software ♦ Object Linking and Embedding, Olivetti, Online Media ♦ Pigeon, Pigeons ♦ The Internet Account, The World Of Cryton ♦ Warm Silence Software, wintel, Wooden Mare ♦ Zynet Ltd.. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "acorn": Valonia. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Many of these trees were my friends I had known from nut or acorn. (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; writing credit: Frances Walsh) Help! There's a peck with an acorn pointed at me (Willow; writing credit: Bob Dolman; George Lucas) | |
Lyrics | Fell down like an acorn (One Season; performing artist: The Roches) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Acorn Antiques (1986) In Love and Anger: Milton Acorn - Poet (1984) The Acorn People (1981) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
Books |
| ||
Periodicals |
| ||
Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Acorn Squash in the produce section of Giant Foods in Dumfries, VA. Credit: USDA. |  | Scallop, acorn, and yellow straightneck squash. Credit: USDA. |
 | Closeup of a variety of squash, butternut, zucchini, scallop, acorn, and yellow straightneck. Credit: USDA. |  | Acorn Woodpecker pecking at tree with many holes. Credit: Unknown. |
 | Arrives at ACORN Training Detachment, Port Hueneme, California, with a wardrobe and no place to stow it, 15 October 1943. Credit: NAVY. |  | Schoolboy acorn looking at signpost. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Debutante reading with cat and owl:] ahh, abash, accouchment, ape, acorn, oa. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Acorn laying in the grass" by Jasper Zeinstra Commentary: "Acorn laying in the grass." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Author | Quotation |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | The creation of a thousand forest in one acorn. |
| Is the acorn better than the oak which is its fullness and completion? | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Competitors within the painting and decorating sector are Earlex, which produces among other things powered decorating tools, L.G. Harris & Co. Ltd., Hamilton Acorn Ltd., and Robert J. Hall Ltd. from Northern Ireland. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Acorn" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 54.03% of the time. "Acorn" is used about 124 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 54.03% | 67 | 40,952 |
| Noun (proper) | 34.68% | 43 | 52,181 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 6.45% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Noun (common) | 4.03% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 0.81% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 124 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Country | Name |
| USA | Acorn Holding Corp. |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "acorn": acorn Archimedes ♦ acorn bar ♦ acorn barnacle ♦ acorn coffee ♦ acorn Computer Group ♦ acorn Computers Ltd. ♦ Acorn cup ♦ acorn nut ♦ acorn RISC Machine ♦ acorn squash ♦ Acorn sugar ♦ acorn tube ♦ acorn valvue ♦ sea acorn. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "acorn": acorn-fed, acorn-full, acorn-headed, Acorn-shell, acorn-worm. | |
Ending with "acorn": sea-acorn. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
acorn | 534 | acorn tree | 16 |
acorn squash | 69 | acorn image | 15 |
acorn housing | 37 | acorn press | 15 |
acorn home | 33 | acorn oak thousand | 14 |
acorn window | 32 | the acorn people | 14 |
acorn slipper | 31 | acorn hardware | 14 |
acorn engineering | 31 | acorn oak | 12 |
acorn squash recipe | 30 | acorn stair lift | 12 |
acorn shop smoke | 25 | acorn manufacturing | 12 |
golden acorn casino | 25 | acorn naturalist | 11 |
acorn picture | 25 | acorn fund liberty | 11 |
acorn media | 23 | acorn video | 10 |
acorn sally | 23 | acorn system | 10 |
acorn theater | 22 | acorn naturalists | 10 |
acorn deepika.com | 22 | acorn design | 10 |
acorn liberty | 21 | acorn stakes | 10 |
acorn newspaper | 18 | acorn group | 10 |
acorn cafe | 18 | golden acorn | 9 |
acorn acres | 17 | acorn plumbing | 9 |
acorn nut | 16 | acorn village | 9 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "acorn"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | akker (field, oak). (various references) | |
Albanian | lis (oak, quercitron), lende, gogël (oak apple). (various references) | |
Arabic | جوزة البلوط, شجرة البلوط. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | жълъдов, жълъд. (various references) | |
Chinese | 橡子. (various references) | |
Cornish | mesen. (various references) | |
Czech | žalud. (various references) | |
Danish | agern. (various references) | |
Dutch | eikel (glans, tassel). (various references) | |
Esperanto | glano. (various references) | |
Farsi | میوه ء تیره ء درختان بلوط(مازو). (various references) | |
Finnish | tammenterho. (various references) | |
French | gland. (various references) | |
Frisian | ikel. (various references) | |
German | Eichel (glans, glans penis). (various references) | |
Greek | βελανίδι. (various references) | |
Hebrew | אצטרובל (cone), בלוט. (various references) | |
Hungarian | makk (glands, nut). (various references) | |
Indonesian | buah pohon ek. (various references) | |
Irish | dearcÚn. (various references) | |
Italian | ghianda (glans). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 団栗 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | どんぐり. (various references) | |
Korean | 에이콘. (various references) | |
Manx | cro darree (oak-apple). (various references) | |
Papago | wi-yohthi. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | acornay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | bolota (pendant, trinket). (various references) | |
Romanian | ghindã (clubs, mast). (various references) | |
Russian | желудь. (various references) | |
Scottish | bachar. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | u obliku šišarke ili žira, žir (glans, mast, oak apple, oak gall, oak-nut, pannage), šišarka (cone, fir cone, nut-gall, nut-pine, pinecone). (various references) | |
Spanish | bellota (glans, mast). (various references) | |
Swedish | ekollon. (various references) | |
Turkish | palamut (Bonito, horse mackarel, mast, valonia), meşe palamudu (nutgall). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | жолудь. (various references) | |
Welsh | mesen. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | balanus, glans. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "acorn": acorns. (additional references) | |
| |
"Acorn" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aborn, acan, acar, Accaron, acco, Accor, accur, acir, aclr, acoin, Acoirn, acon, acor, acore, acorny, acorynm, acour, acro, acron, acurn, Afcor, ahorn, Akurana, alcon, alorn, aporn, arcon, ascern, Ascon, asor, atorn, Aucun, axor, azor, caurn, ecor, ecorv, Eichorn, fayourn, japcorp, Nagorno. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "acorn" (pronounced ā"kôrn) |
| 3 | -ô r n | Leghorn, newborn. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: narco, racon. | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-n-o-r" | |
-1 letter: arco, carn, corn, narc, orca, roan. | |
-2 letters: arc, can, car, con, cor, nor, oar, oca, ora, orc, ran, roc. | |
-3 letters: an, ar, na, no, on, or. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-n-o-r" | |
+1 letter: acorns, anchor, archon, candor, cantor, carbon, carton, contra, corban, cornea, cornua, corona, craton, crayon, garcon, macron, narcos, racons, racoon, rancho, rancor. | |
+2 letters: acrogen, acronic, acronym, anchors, archons, caldron, candors, candour, canonry, cantors, carbons, cardoon, carotin, carrion, carryon, cartons, cartoon, chantor, clangor, clarion, coarsen, contras, coranto, corbans, corbina, corneae, corneal, corneas, cornual, coronae, coronal, coronas, corvina, courant, courlan, crampon, crannog, cratons, crayons, enactor, garcons, macrons, minorca, monarch, narcose, nomarch, ocarina, organic, raccoon, racoons, ranchos, rancors, rancour, romance. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Names: Company Usage 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
