Across Europe the horse chestnut is named plainly, but English alone has ‘conker’. First used for snail shells in the 1840s, the word shifted to chestnuts, from ‘conquer’.

The English name ‘horse chestnut’ is a 16th-century translation of Turkish ‘at kestanesi’, meaning ‘the horse’s chestnut’. From Ottoman horse doctors to autumn conkers, explore its story.