Nuts

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /nʌts/

Definitions

1. An edible hard-shelled fruit or seed typically consumed as a snack
2. A term for an insane or eccentric person
3. Referring to something crazy or absurd in a general context

Etymology: The noun "nuts" is simply the plural of "nut", and the singular has a long Germanic pedigree. Its ancestors are found across the North Sea and Baltic: Dutch "noot", German "Nuss", Swedish "nöt", Danish "nød". The shared root is a reconstructed form *knu-, which may also lie behind Latin "nux" and an old Celtic word for the same fruit. Because the sounds do not match a standard pattern across the wider Indo-European family, some scholars have suggested the word came from a language that was spoken in Europe before the Indo-European languages arrived, though this remains unproven. The English noun had a different form in Old English and Middle English, where it was "hnutu" and then "nute", before the initial sound was lost. Its meaning has also spread well beyond the kitchen. The same word gave English "nutshell" and, through the idea of a hard, compact object, the familiar sense of a head or a crazy person.

Synonyms: crazy, insane, mad, wild, loony

Antonyms: sane, rational, reasonable, logical, sensible