# "nuts" and bolts

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuts-and-bolts/59907>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 29, 2001, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuts-and-bolts/59907 "2001-03-29T01:05:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuts-and-bolts/59907/1 "2001-03-29T01:05:59Z")

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What is the reason that the things that you put on bolts came to be called nuts. There seems to be little similarity to the nuts that we eat.

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**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuts-and-bolts/59907/2 "2001-03-29T02:28:47Z")

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There is also no relationship between an indehiscent, hard-shelled, one-loculated, one-seeded fruit, such as an acorn or a hazelnut, and:

1. A crazy or eccentric person.
2. An enthusiast; a buff (a movie _nut_).
3. A difficult endeavor or problem (painting the closet was a tough _nut_ to crack).
4. The human head.
5. A ridge of wood at the top of the fingerboard or neck of a stringed instrument, over which the strings pass.
6. The cost of launching a business venture.
7. The operating expenses of a theater, theatrical production, or similar enterprise.
8. The testicles.

Yet they are all definitions of the same word. I think this is just a simple example of a [homograph](http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=homograph).

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**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuts-and-bolts/59907/3 "2001-03-29T02:53:53Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Attrayant \*  
> \*\*  
> 3. A difficult endeavor or problem (painting the closet was a tough _nut_ to crack).  
> \*\*

Umm…“tough nut to crack” sounds like a fairly accurate metaphor for “difficult” to me…

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**Author:** ![Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuts-and-bolts/59907/4 "2001-03-29T11:57:33Z")

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I could see that a bag or handful of hex (or the earlier square) nuts could be likened to a bag or handful of nuts from a tree. They’re little hard things about yea so big. I don’t know when cap nuts first came along, but they DO look more like little tree nuts --to me, anyway.

I actually never wondered much about why they call them “nuts” —I have wondered how the other things came to be called “washers”, though.

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**Author:** ![Bawdysurfer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/90db22/32.png) [@Bawdysurfer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bawdysurfer)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuts-and-bolts/59907/5 "2001-03-29T12:21:49Z")

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[This](http://www.boltscience.com/pages/glossary.htm#n) site has a rather generic response.

> [@](#):
>
> **ACORN NUT** : A nut (so-called because of its shape) that has a domed top that so it prevents contact with the external thread.

Rather non-specific, but maybe a steer/nut in the right direction?