Skip to main content

As Nutty as a Fruit Cake

As Nutty as a Fruit Cake 


Watch this on YouTube here - Dessert Video - YouTube Video


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."


Watch this on YouTube here - Dessert Video - YouTube Video



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bad Egg

  Bad Egg Watch this on YouTube here - Eggs Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Bad Egg is a disappointing or unpleasant person, someone who fails to meet expectations.  “What a Bad Egg!” Origin: The Term Bad Egg has been around since the 1800s; back in the days before food standards were so high, it was necessary to check that you didn’t crack a bad egg in amongst the other ingredients. Cookbooks advised cracking eggs into a separate bowl to be sure. One bad egg could spoil it all, and the phrase was born; now, it refers to one bad person amongst all the other good ones, can spoil the mood. The phrase bad egg first appeared in print in the novel “Captain Priest” by Samuel A Hammett in 1855; it read: Some birds are said to carry brick-bats under their wings to sharpen their bills, and others, stones in maws to whet their appetites, but the Perfect Bird carries a brick in his hat and a stone in his boot. In the language of his class, the Perfect Bird generally turns out to be ...

Piece of Cake

  Piece of Cake Watch this on YouTube here - Dessert Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Piece of Cake means A straightforward task that can easily be accomplished. An easy chore, A no-hassle task  “Ahh, piece of cake.” Origin: There is another expression similar to this one that goes ‘as easy as pie.’ -But that's another video - Both sayings have identical meanings—they express ease, but why? It probably doesn’t have to do with the cooking part of these desserts, because baking a cake or pie requires a fair bit of work. First, you have to buy all of the ingredients. Then you have to make it by mixing all the necessary parts together. Then it has to be made up and put in the oven, and you wait for it to cook. Okay, it’s not exactly difficult, but I wouldn’t say it’s easy either. I am not so sure the origin of this idiom comes from the baking of the cake . However, eating the cake once it finishes cooking, now that is a different story that is way ...

To Hit the Road

  To Hit the Road  Watch this on YouTube here - Traveling Video - YouTube Video Meaning: To Hit the Road means to begin a journey, set out on a trip, to be asked to leave.  “Time to hit the road” Origin: This phrase means to leave, it can be good or bad. The bad way is when someone is telling you to go home or to get out “hit the road” or in the good sense it means that you are about to set out on a trip of some kind “all ready? Let’s hit the road.” The phrase has origins in the 1800s when it meant the pounding of a horse’s hooves hitting the trail, re was first written in W. F. Butler’s book ‘The Wild North Land: being the story of a winter journey, with dogs, across northern North America ‘ in 1873. The phrase meant “to get going,” “let’s hit the trail”, and “start our day.” This phrase took on more of a negative twist to say “get out of here” or “Leave” in the 1960s when Ray Charles sang the hit song “Hit the road, Jack”. Example: Today we still see the phrase Hit ...