Nut/Nuts

Origin of: Nut/Nuts

Nut/Nuts

Since the 1500s, nut has enjoyed a figurative meaning for a problem and gave rise to the later metaphor tough/hard nut to crack. By the mid-18th century, on both sides of the Atlantic, nut was slang for head and off one’s nut (or head) soon came to mean crazy or insane and by the late 19th century it was shortened to simply nuts. Nuts meaning testicles, because of their shape, dates from the early 20th century while a nut case or head case, meaning a lunatic, dates from the mid-20th century. See also Nutter.