What is a newsroom chestnut?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
December 19, 2003
Sponsored By: Gurney's Seed and Nursery—>Click here.
Suggested Reading – Plus English Walnut, Dwarf Fruit Trees, & more—>Click here.
Chestnuts (Castanea Miller) are large attractive trees native to the Northern Hemisphere. It is thought that Romans were responsible for introducing the Eurasian chestnut (Castanea sativa) throughout their empire.
When colonists came to North America, the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) was a source of food the Europeans readily recognized; the trees were major constituents of the eastern forests. Chestnuts ripen in the autumn
and drop from the prickly involucre or bur that once subtended the flowers.
Chestnuts have long been collected and stored for winter use. Sitting around a fire and roasting chestnuts on a cold winter's night became a tradition--time for family members and neighbors to sit, talk, gossip, and tell stories.
A 'chestnut' was a tale told too often. The stories or gossip became worn and stale with repetition and were likened to old, stale, and wormy chestnuts. Chestnut came to refer to any old joke, jest, pun, or anecdote that lost its humor.
'Chestnut' entered the slang of the newspaper publishing business in the U.S., but with a different twist. According to the Century Unabridged Dictionary (1889), the newsroom's 'chestnut' was a phrase or catchword, "originally serious in form and intent, but which ceased, through futile repetition, to command interest or respect."
Archivio Fotografico delle Immagini di Sardegna, a website by Paolo Sanna, has a series of photographs of the sweet or Eurasia chestnut. To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://www.fotodisardegna.it/flora/c/castagno.htm
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.
Suggested Reading:
How do oaks wage war? Weird Plants - November 8, 2001
What hardwood tree has no growth rings? Weird Plants - July 11, 2002
What is a Kentucky coffee tree? Weird Plants - December 11, 2003
How did the Brazil nut tree get its name? What's in a Name? - May 3, 2002
What is the plane-tree? What's in a Name? September 13, 2002
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