Nuttiest

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. The person who exhibits the highest level of eccentricity or whimsy may be characterized as such
2. Having the greatest degree of oddness or peculiarity among a group
3. Exhibiting the highest level of quirkiness or unconventional behavior possible

Etymology: "Nuttiest" is the superlative of "nutty," so its story is really the story of "nut" plus the suffix "-y." The noun "nut" goes back to Old English "hnutu," which traces to a Proto-Germanic root "*hnuts," and the suffix "-y" (Old English "-ig") meant "full of" or "characterised by." A nutty thing was thus once simply one full of nuts, the way a stony field is full of stones. The jump from nuts in the literal sense to a figurative sense of eccentricity came later and is the step that makes the word feel surprising. Once "nutty" described something that tasted of or resembled nuts, it began to be applied to people and ideas that seemed as hard-shelled and peculiar as a nut's casing, and its sense of crazy or silly grew out of that comparison. The superlative "nuttiest" simply adds the ending "-iest" to "nutty," following the usual pattern for adjectives that end in "-y" and are compared to show the most extreme degree of a quality.

Synonyms: craziest, silliest, wackiest, wildest, zaniest

Antonyms: sane, reasonable, rational, sensible, logical