Poker Term The Nuts Origin

These terms probably won’t make you laugh too much, but you’ll hear them often so you might as well know them. A pair of Aces can be called Pocket Rockets, Bullets, Nuts, or American Airlines. The nuts are almost never determined until the river, but the term is commonly used to describe the best possible hand at any given point during play.

'crazy, not right in the head,' 1846, from earlier colloquial or slang be nuts on 'be very fond of' (1785), which is possibly from nuts (plural noun) 'any source of pleasure or delight' (1610s), from nut (q.v.). Nuts as a special treat or favorite foodstuff led to other figurative phrases, now obsolete. The 'crazy' sense probably has been influenced by metaphoric application of nut to 'head' (1846, as in to be off one's nut 'be insane,' 1860). Also compare nutty. Nuts as a derisive retort is attested from 1931.

Connection with the slang 'testicles' sense has tended to nudge the word toward taboo territory. 'On the N.B.C. network, it is forbidden to call any character a nut; you have to call him a screwball.' [New Yorker, Dec. 23, 1950] 'Please eliminate the expression 'nuts to you' from Egbert's speech.' [Request from the Hays Office regarding the script of 'The Bank Dick,' 1940] This desire for avoidance probably accounts for the euphemism nerts (c. 1925).

Poker Term The Nuts Original Cast

Dictionary entries near nuts

nutriment

nutrition

nutritionist

nutritious

nutritive

nuts

nutshell

nutter

nutting

nutty

nuzzle

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

numb +‎ nuts

Pronunciation[edit]

• Audio (AU)

Noun[edit]

Poker Term The Nuts Originally

numbnuts (pluralnumbnutsornumbnutses)

1. (chiefly US,slang,derogatory, sometimes humorous, often as a term of address) A slow-witted, unresponsive, or inept person (usually male).

   Tell numbnuts over there to wake up and pay attention to his work.

   The drill instructor must have called him 'numbnuts' fifty times today.

References[edit]

• “numbnuts” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• In A Dictionary of Slang: English slang and colloquialisms used in the United Kingdom, retrieved 25 May 2007.
• In An Unabridged Unofficial Dictionary for Marines, retrieved 25 May 2007.