nutter

Etymology

It is formed from English nut + -er.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} For the sense "a gatherer of nuts" the OED allows that the base may be the verb as well as the noun.^[2] The slang sense "crazy person" is built on the slang use of the noun for a mad or eccentric person.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A nut tree: before 1425, in the Medulla Grammatice; this sense did not survive the 15th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

After the obsolete "nut tree", the word meant a person who gathers nuts.^[2][3] Etymonline dates this sense to the late 15th century,^[8] but the OED's first quotation is from William Cobbett's Rural Rides (1826), the year Merriam-Webster Unabridged also gives, and it now calls the sense rare.^[2][6] The current sense, a crazy, eccentric or recklessly violent person, is British slang first recorded in 1958, in F. Norman's Bang to Rights;^[2][7][8] Green's Dictionary of Slang has it in Australian writing from 1989.^[7] Collins labels it British slang, sometimes jocular, and offensive when used of a person with a mental illness,^[9] and the OED marks it as potentially offensive and chiefly derogatory.^[2] The related slang nuttery, a mental hospital, is recorded from 1931; earlier, from 1881, it meant a place for storing nuts.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1425 – a nut tree (obsolete by the late 15th century).^[2][3]
• 1826 – a person who gathers nuts.^[2][6] Etymonline dates this sense to the late 15th century.^[8]
• 1958 – British slang, a crazy, eccentric or recklessly violent person.^[2][7][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly British, informal) A person who behaves in a foolish, strange or unpredictable way, especially one given to reckless or violent behaviour: Only a nutter would go swimming in the sea in January.^[9][6][2]
2. (offensive) A person with a mental illness.^[9][2]
3. (rare) A person who gathers nuts.^[6][2]
4. (obsolete) A nut tree.^[2][3]

Related words

• nutty
• nut

Usage notes

Nutter, with a capital, was also a proprietary name, from 1906, for a substitute for butter made from the oil of nuts, a blend of nut and butter.^[2][3] In Oxfordshire and Berkshire dialect nutter was a verb meaning to whinny softly, as a mare and her colt do to each other.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)