# Are any nuts actually nuts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 18, 2007, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441 "2007-12-18T07:14:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/21 "2007-12-18T20:20:09Z")
[QUOTE=Barrington] “PEANUTS (Warning: may contain nuts)” makes more sense when you consider that peanuts are not nuts. [/quote] I don’t think the warning is based on the assumption that peanuts are not “nuts.” The casual meaning of the word “nut” includes peanuts, cashews, and all those other things. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Tomato is a vegetable. Fish and chicken are meat. A chimpanzee is a monkey. Pandas and koalas are bears. All true statements. The statment “a peanut is not a nut” is true only when qualified by “under this specialized definition of _nut_.” ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/22 "2007-12-18T21:06:47Z")
The varied names of nuts became a plot point in an episode of _House_. Apparently, in Brazil, Brazil nuts are called walnuts, or pecans, or something. House treated a spy for every other damn thing until they finally told him the spook had been in Brazil. There is a chance I’ve got the whole thing backwards. :smack: Aw, nuts. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/23 "2007-12-18T21:36:42Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] I don’t think the warning is based on the assumption that peanuts are not “nuts.” The casual meaning of the word “nut” includes peanuts, cashews, and all those other things. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Tomato is a vegetable. Fish and chicken are meat. A chimpanzee is a monkey. Pandas and koalas are bears. All true statements. The statment “a peanut is not a nut” is true only when qualified by “under this specialized definition of _nut_.” [/QUOTE] Except that a chimpanzee is NOT a monkey, not by either common usage or accepted definitions. But other than that, yes. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/24 "2007-12-18T21:46:14Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] Except that a chimpanzee is NOT a monkey, not by either common usage or accepted definitions. [/QUOTE] The only people I know who don’t consider chimpanzees to be monkeys are the pedants who say, “You know, a chimpanzee is an ape, not a monkey,” every time the word _monkey_ is associated with a chimp. How would they be getting so many opportunities to trot this one out unless everyone else uses the word _monkey_ in connection with chimps? ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/25 "2007-12-18T22:28:44Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] Tomato is a vegetable. Fish and chicken are meat. A chimpanzee is a monkey. Pandas and koalas are bears. All true statements. The statment “a peanut is not a nut” is true only when qualified by “under this specialized definition of _nut_.” [/QUOTE] Cool, I get to be the Australian pedant and point out Koala’s are not Bears. (But you already knew that I’m sure) But seriously how much can a koala bear? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/26 "2007-12-18T23:18:01Z")
[QUOTE=Barrington] It hadn’t occurred to me before, but the old packaging howler “PEANUTS (Warning: may contain nuts)” makes more sense when you consider that peanuts are not nuts. [/QUOTE] Not long ago I bought a packet of mixed nuts which bore the warning (verbatim) “CONTAINS NUTS. MAY CONTAIN OTHER NUTS.” OK, I assume it meant that it could contain nuts other than those listed on the ingredients, but it’s pretty dumb wording… ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/27 "2007-12-18T23:31:43Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] The only people I know who don’t consider chimpanzees to be monkeys are the pedants who say, “You know, a chimpanzee is an ape, not a monkey,” every time the word _monkey_ is associated with a chimp. How would they be getting so many opportunities to trot this one out unless everyone else uses the word _monkey_ in connection with chimps? [/QUOTE] \ I know of no one who makes the mistake of thinking of the word “monkey” when they see a chimpanzee. Now, maybe YOU do. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/28 "2007-12-19T00:46:33Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] \ I know of no one who makes the mistake of thinking of the word “monkey” when they see a chimpanzee. Now, maybe YOU do. :dubious: [/QUOTE] Personally, I consider a chimpanzee to be a “monkey” under the common usage of that term. The restriction of the term “ape” to the great apes (gorilla, chimp, and orang) really represents a hijacking by scientists of what was originally a general term for all primates. While in technical context I would not call a chimp a monkey, in common English I have no problem with that usage. From Merriam-Webster: > [@](#): > > Main Entry: mon·key > Etymology: probably of Low German origin; akin to Moneke, name of an ape, probably of Romance origin; akin to Old Spanish mona monkey > Date: circa 1530 > 1: a nonhuman primate mammal with the exception usually of the lemurs and tarsiers; especially : any of the smaller longer-tailed catarrhine or platyrrhine primates as contrasted with the apes Note that per this definition it is OK to refer to an ape as a monkey, even though some distinction is made. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/29 "2007-12-19T01:00:11Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] Well, only true if you consider a cow the same as an impala, for example. 😃 [/QUOTE] Not really, because they are not similar, whereas the nuts in question _are_. Sometimes precision is useful or essential - other times it’s superfluous or at least not very important. Consider that as a macrocosm of this point, we already lump a whole bunch of botanically diverse things under the umbrella term ‘nuts’ (some of which aren’t even seeds). Thinking of walnuts and pecans as rather similar is no more a crime than that. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/30 "2007-12-19T01:00:24Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] While watching Good Eats, ol’ AB mentioned that pecans aren’t actually nuts, but are “drupes,” as are walnuts and probably other things we call nuts. And of course, we all know that a peanut isn’t a nut, it’s a legume. So of the things we commonly call nuts, which ones are actually botanically/taxonomically considered “nuts?” [/QUOTE] If the distinction actually exists, it’s an extremely debatable one. [This site](http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph8.htm) discusses the botanical status of various kinds of “nuts” in excruciating detail. > [@](#): > > Walnut & Pecan: Walnut Family (Juglandaceae) > > Note: Many botanists say that the husk of pecans and walnuts > contains tissue from the outer pericarp, and insist on referring > to these dry fruits as “drupaceous nuts” rather than true nuts. > > According to “The Morphology of the Flowers of the Juglandaceae” by W.E. Manning (1940), American Journal of Botany 27 (10): 839-852, the fruits of Juglans and Carya are drupe-like but not a drupe or dry drupe. The fruit is sometimes called a “tryma” but can be described as a nut. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary describes a tryma as a nutlike drupe (as the fruit of the walnut or hickory) in which the epicarp and mesocarp separate as a somewhat fleshy or leathery rind from the hard 2-valved endocarp. The tryma is also defined as a drupe with a dehiscent husk, which fits the genus Carya perfectly. I hope this clarifies the situation. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/31 "2007-12-19T01:14:45Z")
Thing is (and not to anyone in particular) botanists get to define and delineate terms _applicable to botany_. If they invade the supermarket and start insisting that the fruit and vegetables section be reorganised so as to group the apples and pears with the strawberries, - because they’re accessory fruits, or the oranges and bananas with the blueberries, because they’re all really berries - then they’ll have overstepped the mark a bit. Different groups of people use terms differently, and do not necessarily get to impose their terminology on each other. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/32 "2007-12-19T02:08:35Z")
With respect to the OP, according to the strict botanical definition, true nuts include: chestnut beechnut acorn hazelnut filbert (Hazelnuts and filberts are closely related, belonging to the same genus but different species.) Walnuts and pecans may also be considered nuts by botanists. Most other nuts in the culinary sense are not nuts in the botanical sense. Since most nuts are not nuts, I think it’s nuts to insist that these nuts should not be called nuts. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/33 "2007-12-19T02:52:21Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Thing is (and not to anyone in particular) botanists get to define and delineate terms _applicable to botany_. If they invade the supermarket and start insisting that the fruit and vegetables section be reorganised so as to group the apples and pears with the strawberries, - because they’re accessory fruits, or the oranges and bananas with the blueberries, because they’re all really berries - then they’ll have overstepped the mark a bit. Different groups of people use terms differently, and do not necessarily get to impose their terminology on each other. [/QUOTE] The OP was asking specifically about the botannical definition, I believe. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Basandre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@Basandre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Basandre)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/34 "2007-12-19T13:55:20Z")
[QUOTE=Flander] [Pine nuts.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_nuts) I felt I needed to be helpful after posting a joke in a GQ thread. [/QUOTE] Also called piñons or piñon nuts in the Southwest. Extremely tasty. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/35 "2007-12-19T13:59:36Z")
So those salted cashews at my local pub are actually _brewer’s drupes_? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/36 "2007-12-19T14:11:30Z")
Are almonds actually nuts, or just a little loopy? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/37 "2007-12-19T14:17:53Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] The OP was asking specifically about the botannical definition, I believe. 😉 [/QUOTE] That’s true, and a fair cop. The thread veered off a bit, which threw me. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441/38 "2007-12-19T15:42:16Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] beechnut [/QUOTE] I thought they made baby food. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-nuts-actually-nuts/430441.md?page=1)