Okay, my co-worker has a question. Brazil nuts have a slang name…more infamous and politically incorrect than I’d like to repeat.
Where and when did this practice/name originate - anyone have any ideas?
Tibs.
I’m assuming the term you’re hesitant to use is nigger toes. That’s the one I’ve heard.
The derivation has always been pretty obvious to me. Brazil nuts still in their shells are very dark brown, and though a little large for the comparison to be exactly accurate, they are of roughly the same shape as, say, a pinkie toe, which is to say somewhat triangular leading to a point.
Hope this helps.
Sorry, Tibs. Read right over that. According to Cassells’s Dictionary of Slang, the term originated in US in the mid-1800s to describe a type of potato and by the late 1800s had come to refer to Brazil nuts or walnuts.
I’m trying to figure out what type of potato. As has been noted the brazil nut has somewhat of a reasonable shape to represent a toe. Must be something like you see in the papers “Man finds potato that looks like Rush Limbaugh”. :eek:
Heh. Thank you for your help, KneadtoKnow.
She (Louise, my co-worker) is always amazed at how quickly things get answered here. I should get her registered.
Tibs.
And Kniz,…we could have a Rush Limbaugh nut. Oh wait, that’s redundant. 
Perhaps a fingerling? err… a toeling?
To add to the Cassell, it was cited first in 1853 thusly:
The nut usage appeared first in print in 1896 although the references would indicate it was a common term for Brazil nuts as far back as the Civil War.