I got as far as discovering that nut as in crazy is the earliest and nutter and nut case are derived from it, and nut was (and still is) slang for head, plus the terms nuts and nutty also meant crazy, so it’s a fairly obvious step for nut to pick up that definition, too.
I re-read my comment and it makes sense to me. Have you seen the trailer in question?
What is a nutter? What is a fruitcake? what’s a dead ringer?
Dead ringer is an exact look a like. A clone.
Nutter and fruitcake are terms for someone crazy.
Wait, to nut is to wank but a nutter isn’t a wanker?
Nutter, nut and nutcase have been used to refer to crazy people for a lot longer than nut has been used to refer to wanking
I am wondering the etymogy of the slang usage now. What about nuts did people look at an go “yeah that can apply to people who are mentally unwell?”
Was it the fact a walnut kinda resembles a brain? 🤔
I got as far as discovering that nut as in crazy is the earliest and nutter and nut case are derived from it, and nut was (and still is) slang for head, plus the terms nuts and nutty also meant crazy, so it’s a fairly obvious step for nut to pick up that definition, too.
Ah so that’s why that items called that in tf2. Or is it the other way around ? :D
They’re american slang?
Not just American (I’m not American).
Dead ringer isn’t really slang, it’s just an idiom. I’m curious what variety of English you speak?
The non-native english. Learnt something today.
I’m Canadian and I understood
american/uk