the.com/nut
a seed wearing armor, a fastener with attitude, and an insult that doubles as a compliment.
means A nut is a hard-shelled seed or fruit you crack open to eat, or a small metal block with a threaded hole that screws onto a bolt to hold things together — and, informally, a person who's eccentric, obsessed, or slightly unhinged.
from From Old English 'hnutu,' the woody-shelled seed, with cousins across the Germanic family (Old Norse 'hnot,' Dutch 'noot,' German 'Nuss') and likely deeper roots in a Proto-Indo-European source also tied to Latin 'nux.' The fastener sense came later by resemblance — a small, hard, tightly-clenched lump — and the 'crazy person' sense grew from the slang use of 'nut' for the head (as in 'off his nut'), the idea being that something had come loose inside it.
- botanical fraud
- Peanuts and cashews are not true nuts
- engineering
- Nuts and bolts predate accurate threads by centuries
- allergy weight
- A single peanut can trigger fatal reactions
- deadly drop
- Falling coconuts reportedly kill people yearly
- slang reach
- Means crazy person, enthusiast, and small fastener
brazil nut — largest tree nut by weight, native to amazon rainforest, ~5,000 nuts per tree annually
macadamia nut — world's most expensive nut at $25/lb, native to australia, hardest shell of any nut
black walnut — native north american nut tree, produces juglone that kills nearby plants, valued lumber since 1600s