What does butternut mean?
The word butternut most commonly refers to a popular variety of winter squash, prized for its sweet, dense, orange flesh and smooth tan skin. Roasted, puréed into soups, or folded into risottos and pasta dishes, it has become a staple of autumn cooking across Britain, the United States, and beyond. The name combines 'butter', evoking the vegetable's rich texture, with 'nut', a nod to its nutty flavour and to an older American meaning: the edible nut of the butternut tree, Juglans cinerea, a relative of the walnut native to eastern North America. In everyday speech, people rarely say just 'butternut' without 'squash', since the bare form can be ambiguous between the vegetable and the now less familiar tree. Warm, seasonal, and wholesome in connotation, butternut carries strong associations with home cooking, harvest time, and comfort food.
A winter squash with sweet orange flesh and pale tan skin, used in cooking.
"Halve the butternut, scoop out the seeds, and roast it until caramelised."
In North America, the edible nut of the butternut tree (Juglans cinerea), or the tree itself.
"Squirrels had stripped every butternut from the branches by November."
This sense is chiefly historical or regional American; the squash sense dominates contemporary usage.
Standard plural; often written as 'butternut squashes' when referring to multiple vegetables.
"We bought three butternuts at the farmers' market."
Despite its creamy name, the butternut isn't related to butter at all — it was named simply because its flesh tastes rich and buttery.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of butternut
Butternut is a compound of English 'butter' and 'nut', coined in North America in the late eighteenth century, when it first named the oily nut of a native walnut tree whose flavour reminded settlers of butter. As the similar-tasting squash was cultivated and became popular in the nineteenth century, the name transferred to it, and today the vegetable has almost entirely displaced the original referent in common use.
How butternut is actually used
In modern usage worldwide, 'butternut' almost always refers to the squash and usually appears as 'butternut squash'. The tree-and-nut sense is chiefly American and increasingly historical.
Easily confused with butternut
A butterbean is a type of lima bean, whereas a butternut is a squash or a walnut-tree nut.