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.”
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.
Except that a chimpanzee is NOT a monkey, not by either common usage or accepted definitions. But other than that, yes. 
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?
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:
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…
<sigh> 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:
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:
Note that per this definition it is OK to refer to an ape as a monkey, even though some distinction is made.
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.
If the distinction actually exists, it’s an extremely debatable one.
This site discusses the botanical status of various kinds of “nuts” in excruciating detail.
I hope this clarifies the situation. 
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.
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.
The OP was asking specifically about the botannical definition, I believe. 
Also called piñons or piñon nuts in the Southwest. Extremely tasty.
So those salted cashews at my local pub are actually brewer’s drupes?
Are almonds actually nuts, or just a little loopy?
That’s true, and a fair cop. The thread veered off a bit, which threw me.
I thought they made baby food.