Almost Clever

Observations about life and stories that border on being funny and/or inspired.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Is this Irony?

I was doing what I do when I'm bored. Searching the Online Etymology dictionary for anything that might be funny.
Check out the etymology for the word nuts:
"crazy," 1846, from earlier be nutts upon "be very fond of" (1785), which is possibly from nuts (n., pl.) "any source of pleasure" (1617), from nut (q.v.). Sense influenced probably by metaphoric application of nut to "head" (1846, e.g. to be off one's nut "be insane," 1860). Nut "crazy person, crank" is attested from 1903, (British form nutter first attested 1958). Connection with the slang "testicle" sense has tended to nudge it toward taboo. "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 accounts for the euphemism nerts (c.1925). Nutty "crazy" is first attested 1898.


They demanded the removel of the word "nuts" from a script titled "The Bank Dick" because nuts is slang for tesiticles. The irony, of course being, that "dick" is slng for penis. It's unimaginable to have one without the other.

Irony? Or just plain stupid?

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