In Robert Caro’s book The Path to Power is the following passage (emphasis mine):
Road-building – fresno and mule-team road-building – was a rough business in Texas then[.]
Later on the page is this use of “fresno”:
When, a year later, his boss went broke, he paid off his young foreman’s back wage by giving him four mules and a fresno.
The word “fresno” is in lower-case. I’ve never encountered this as a common noun before. Some quick Googling turns up a definition meaning “an ash tree,” but I don’t see the connection between ash trees and road-building.
What does this expression mean? Does “fresno” as a common noun have a specific connotation or use here?
Best Answer
According to Wikipedia it is a "f/Fresno scraper", which gives
See also Merrian Webster