Who decided tree seeds should be the go-to when expressing frustration of life’s lesser disappointments?
I’ve put this here because I’m doubting the etymology is traceable.
As it says in the article,
Today, “nuts to you” or “nuts to (someone” is used as an exclamation of anger or dismissal toward someone else. It can be something as simple as “go away!” or it can be… a little meaner, let’s say.
(Bolding mine)
Not quite the same as simply, “Nuts.” I mean, I’m not dismissing that screw that just stripped out. I’m willing to believe the use of nut for other than seeds could be traced back to one Alice Nutter.
Okay,
Yeah, I’d kinda always known it was a synonym for balls and considered unfit for tender ears.
Funny, but when “baller” became slang whenever it did (long before I noticed I’m sure), it always threw me. In fact, in Woodstock a young couple are being interviewed, and the girl makes a comment about her and the guy “balling,” which of course was slang then for fucking. But “baller” doesn’t seem to mean “fucker.” Is it based on basketball players (who have a cool factor) or something ???
Perhaps this will provide some edification (probably not).
I can’t find any authority giving backing to the Alice Nutter story. Lots of folk etymology mentions her but don’t bother to give any usages back to 1612. Even “nutter,” fairly common British slang, doesn’t arise until 1958.
The earliest use of nuts as in nuts to you is from Jonathan Swift’s A Journal to Stella (1766):
“Why, we had not one word of quarrel; only he railed at me when I was gone: and Lord Keeper and Treasurer teased me for a week. It was nuts to them; a serious thing with a vengeance.”
@Darren_Garrison’s second cite is a good one, but attributing “nuts to you” to 1928 is obviously wrong, though an easy mistake to make. The other cites on how nuts became an expression of frustration are probably pretty good.
Nut as a synonym for balls is also a later sense. The “crazy” sense probably has been influenced by metaphoric application of nut to “head” (1846, as in to be off one’s nut “be insane,” 1860). Nuts as testicles seems to be a 20th century product.
Some old crank gave a short history of nuts as crazy that you might want to look at.
as used on ESPN, it signifies a very good player
Go Nuts!!..
Do nuts!! They’re delicious.
I was dubious about the Hays Code restriction because I distinctly remembered in Dinner at Eight Jean Harlow sitting at her dressing table saying, “Nerts to you,*” to her ‘beloved’ husband Wallace Beery. Then I remembered it was released in 1933, the year before HC kicked in and probably was one of the reasons it did.
*It was the first time I’d heard it pronounced that way,
Mom: Our daughter wants to shave her head!
Dad: Did she tell you that?
Mom: No, I heard her talking to a friend and she says she wants to be bald soon!
I’m not sure exactly how you’re reading that Swift quote, but I think you might be conflating the earlier, positive meaning of “nuts to” with the later, negative one.
When Swift says “it was nuts to them”, he means that they greatly enjoyed it, they found it delightful, like eating nuts.
“Nuts to you!” or “Nuts to that!”, etc., as a derogatory interjection, on the other hand, does seem to be of early 20th-century origin. It is definitely not how Swift was using the phrase back in 1766.
Yep, I obviously skipped that part in the cite I linked to. Thanks for the better explanation.