英语词汇nut的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

nut. Due to the round shape of many nuts, nut has long been slang for “head,” which led to the expression, he’s off his nut meaning “he’s crazy,” which in turn gave us nuts for “crazy” and nut house, meaning “insane asylum.” The word nut can be used for a sum of money, and figures in many other expres- sions as well, including a hard nut to crack (a tough problem to solve) and from soup to nuts, meaning “complete.” To give someone a brief summary of something is to put it in a nutshell and obviously refers to the small size of a nutshell. The phrase has been with us at least since Pliny reported that the Iliad had been copied in so small a handwriting by a contemporary of his that the whole work fit in a walnut shell. This feat has been duplicated several times over the years. Since there are no nuts to be gathered in May, the old children’s song with the words, “Here we go gathering nuts in May” seems to make no sense— and indeed, it may have been intended as a nonsense song. But “the nuts” in the phrase has been explained as being “knots” of May, that is, bunches of flowers. In Elizabethan England, Queen Elizabeth herself gathered knots of May in the mead- ows, one author tells us, and this is a plausible explanation even though there are no recorded quotations supporting the use of knots for “flowers,” except possibly the English knot gar- den of herbs.

词汇	nut
词源	nut. Due to the round shape of many nuts, nut has long been slang for “head,” which led to the expression, he’s off his nut meaning “he’s crazy,” which in turn gave us nuts for “crazy” and nut house, meaning “insane asylum.” The word nut can be used for a sum of money, and figures in many other expres- sions as well, including a hard nut to crack (a tough problem to solve) and from soup to nuts, meaning “complete.” To give someone a brief summary of something is to put it in a nutshell and obviously refers to the small size of a nutshell. The phrase has been with us at least since Pliny reported that the Iliad had been copied in so small a handwriting by a contemporary of his that the whole work fit in a walnut shell. This feat has been duplicated several times over the years. Since there are no nuts to be gathered in May, the old children’s song with the words, “Here we go gathering nuts in May” seems to make no sense— and indeed, it may have been intended as a nonsense song. But “the nuts” in the phrase has been explained as being “knots” of May, that is, bunches of flowers. In Elizabethan England, Queen Elizabeth herself gathered knots of May in the mead- ows, one author tells us, and this is a plausible explanation even though there are no recorded quotations supporting the use of knots for “flowers,” except possibly the English knot gar- den of herbs.
随便看	good talk good times good to go good to the last drop good wine needs no bush goody goody two shoes good-time charlie goof off goofy google googly googol googolplex gook goolies goon goondaism gooney bird goop gooseberry gooseberry fool goose egg goose pimples goosestep