Etymology

conker

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Today it means: A horse chestnut, used in the game of conkers. Full definition →

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The story

As a term for horse chestnut, derived from the name of the game conkers, which came first. Theories for the original meaning include 19th-century dialect conker (“snail-shell”) (the game of conkers was originally played using snail-shells), from conch + -er, or a variant of conquer.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.