# Awww, nuts! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 15, 2023, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720 "2023-04-15T18:50:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2023, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/1 "2023-04-15T18:50:44Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2023, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/2 "2023-04-15T19:06:25Z")
> **[A Brief History of "Nuts to You"](https://www.readtothemresourcehub.org/post/a-brief-history-of-nuts-to-you)** > > by Kayla Aldrich, Read to Them staff Hello, all, and happy Wednesday! As you get settled in with Lynne Rae Perkins' Nuts to You, one thing you probably noticed from the start? The title, of course. Did it make you laugh? Scratch your head and wonder,... ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2023, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/3 "2023-04-15T19:24:46Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2023, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/4 "2023-04-15T19:32:39Z")
Okay, > **[When “nuts!” was taboo](https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/when-nuts-was-taboo/)** > > What’s a nice interjection like nuts! doing in a place like Strong Language, home of brazen epithets and unexpurgated swears? Nuts: such a mild word, so fusty and old-fashioned, so suitable for chi… ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2023, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/5 "2023-04-15T20:44:43Z")
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 ??? ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2023, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/6 "2023-04-15T22:11:32Z")
Perhaps this will provide some edification (probably not). [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/oV5PMKiImCs/maxresdefault.jpg "The Two Little Squirrels (Nuts To You)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV5PMKiImCs) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2023, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/7 "2023-04-15T23:52:31Z")
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](https://www.etymonline.com/word/nut?ref=etymonline_crossreference). The earliest use of nuts as in nuts to you is from [Jonathan Swift’s _A Journal to Stella_ (1766):](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nuts) > “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).](https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=nuts) Nuts as testicles seems to be a 20th century product. [Some old crank gave a short history of nuts as crazy](https://www.straightdope.com/21344487/how-did-em-nuts-em-and-em-bananas-em-come-to-mean-crazy) that you might want to look at. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2023, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/8 "2023-04-16T05:26:43Z")
as used on ESPN, it signifies a very good player ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2023, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/9 "2023-04-16T12:47:33Z")
Go Nuts!!.. > **[Modesto Nuts](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modesto_Nuts)** > > The Modesto Nuts are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. They are located in Modesto, California, and are named for the several types of nuts grown in the region. They play their home games at John Thurman Field, which opened in 1955. > The Nuts adopted their current name in 2005 after the team's affiliation with the Oakland Athletics ended. Before then, the team was known as the Modesto Athletics (or A's) from 1975 to 2004. The... ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2023, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/10 "2023-04-16T18:29:16Z")
Do nuts!! They’re delicious. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2023, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/11 "2023-04-16T18:33:30Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Okay 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, ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2023, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/12 "2023-04-16T18:38:48Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > 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. **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! ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2023, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/13 "2023-04-17T02:16:02Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The earliest use of nuts as in nuts to you is from [Jonathan Swift’s _A Journal to Stella_ (1766):](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nuts) > > > “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. 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.](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nuts) > [@](#): > > The informal adjective _nuts_ dates to the early 1900s but developed from an earlier 17th-century slang meaning often found in phrases like “nuts to me” and “nuts for me,” where it referred to a source of delight, as in this quote from English satirist 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.” The use likely had something to do with the taste of the dry fruit or seed since early figurative examples of the noun include the expression “nuts and cheese.” Adjectival use, typically describing enthusiasm about or fondness for someone or something came about in the late 18th century. In Britain, the term was often used in the phrase “dead nuts on,” as “She is dead nuts on the boy next door.” “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. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2023, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awww-nuts/982720/14 "2023-04-17T03:11:07Z")
Yep, I obviously skipped that part in the cite I linked to. Thanks for the better explanation.