Sweet as a nut

This British expression means 'with consummate ease, skill or efficiency' and is often used to express a superlative of any kind but the origin is obscure. A well-known cricket commentator was heard to say very recently, “He hits the ball cleanly, sweet as a nut.” Eric Partridge in his Dictionary of Historical Slang gives the date of origin as the 'late 19th century', but this is debatable and, furthermore, it does not sound like slang. After considerable searching, no definite date of origin has been found but one suspects the expression is very old, perhaps before sugar confectionery became popular. For example, if the nut referred to is the roasted chestnut, which is very sweet, it could date back as far as The Middle Ages. Shakespeare describes Rosalind as the ‘sweetest nut’ in As You Like It, Act III, Scene II, “Sweetest nut hath sourest rind, such a nut is Rosalind.” Shakespeare’s usage is the nearest anyone has come to finding a first citation, but the fact remains ‘sweetest nut’ is still some distance, etymologically speaking, from ‘sweet as a nut’.