trunk

pronunciation

How to pronounce trunk in British English: UK [trʌŋk] word uk audio image

How to pronounce trunk in American English: US [trʌŋk] word us audio image

Noun:

the main stem of a tree; usually covered with bark; the bole is usually the part that is commercially useful for lumber
luggage consisting of a large strong case used when traveling or for storage
the body excluding the head and neck and limbs
compartment in an automobile that carries luggage or shopping or tools
a long flexible snout as of an elephant

Word Origin

trunk: trunk: [15] Trunk came via Old French tronc from Latin truncus (source also of English trench and truncate). This denoted ‘something with its protruding parts torn off’, hence ‘something regarded separately from its protruding parts’ – the stem of a tree without its branches, or a body without its limbs. The application of the English word to an ‘elephant’s proboscis’, which dates from the 16th century, apparently arose from some confusion with trump ‘trumpet’.=> trench, truncate

trunk (n.2): "elephant's snout," 1560s, apparently from trunk (n.1), perhaps from confusion with trump (n.2), short for trumpet.

trunk (n.1): mid-15c., "box, case," from Old French tronc "alms box in a church," also "trunk of a tree, trunk of the human body, wooden block" (12c.), from Latin truncus "trunk of a tree, trunk of the body," of uncertain origin, perhaps originally "mutilated, cut off." The meaning "box, case" is likely to be from the notion of the body as the "case" of the organs. English acquired the "main stem of a tree" and "torso of the body" senses from Old French in late 15c. The sense of "luggage compartment of a motor vehicle" is from 1930. Railroad trunk line is attested from 1843; telephone version is from 1889.

1. Across the road from his new house stands a tall ginkgo with a split trunk .

2. 385 Million b.c. during the middle devonian period of the paleozoic era , a prehistoric fern adds a new growth ring to its trunk , creating the world 's first timeline .

3. Jabuticaba , or the brazilian grape tree , is a very strange plant native to the south eastern parts of brazil . What makes this plant so strange is that it fruits from its trunk .

4. Image above : the breakfast bar that separates the kitchen from the dining area is made from a tree trunk found in the forest that surrounds us and the bar itself is a huge piece of african padouk , which is one of the hardest woods in the world .