Other forms: pistachios
A pistachio is a small green nut sold in a split shell. Salted pistachios, a bag of pistachios, pistachio ice cream.
The shell splits on the tree as the kernel grows, which is why they are sold open — a closed one is usually empty. The green comes from chlorophyll, unusual in a nut. Iran and the United States grow most of them, and the trees fruit heavily only every other year.
1nounpistachioA small green nut sold in a split shell.
“He cracked open a pistachio and threw the shell into the bowl.”
pistachio is a nut.
Italian pistacchio comes through Latin and Greek from a word of Iranian origin, the name of the tree.
Italian
pistacchio
English, today
pistachio
Built from
Borrowed from Italian pistacchio. From Italian pistacchio (1590s), from Latin pistācium (“pistachio”), from Ancient Greek πιστάκιον, from πιστάκη (“pistachio tree”), of ira - origin. Compare Middle English pistace (from Middle French pistace, pistache), kmr pisteq, Persian پسته, pal pstk' (“pistachio nut”), xcl պիստակ (from Iranian), Arabic فُسْتُق, Turkish fıstık.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA