As Nutty as a Fruit Cake

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Meaning:

As Nutty as a Fruit Cake means crazy or wacky. Usually used humorously.

“Oh, you’re as nutty as a fruit cake.”

Origin:

This phrase has changed over time. Based on different dictionary findings the term “nuts” meaning crazy has been around for a while. In 1846, it was used as - to be off one's nut, which meant to "be insane."

In 1898 the Slang nutty was meant as "crazy". The phrase as nutty as fruitcake, which literally contains nuts as well as fruit, was first recorded in 1935. We put nuts and fruitcake together as a way to express "HOW" crazy someone is. Are they a little nutty or really nutty, like a fruitcake? Now this might not make sense, it is a FRUIT cake well, the older style of fruit cake is a bit different than what we see today. It was made with dried fruits and lots of nuts, and was typically on the drier side, with no sweet sugary frosting or add-ons to be found. So if you are as nutty as a fruitcake, you’re really crazy.

As time went on the phrase got shortened to just fruitcake and became the new slang to call someone crazy “you fruitcake.”

Example:

Today we still see the term as nutty as a fruit cake being used, quite often to explain children acting weird and kooky. We do not use it so much on adults. An example sentence is:

"The kids are always nutty as fruitcakes when they've had something sugary to eat."

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