The Nuts

Posted by R. Berg on December 07, 2003

In Reply to: The Nuts posted by Doug Litwin on December 07, 2003

: In poker an unbeatable hand is called 'The Nuts'. Can anyone tell me the source of this term?

Possibly from a more general old slang sense:

"NUTS. A delightful thing, practice, experience: from ca. 1859 . . . standard English until 1780, then colloquial until ca. 1850, then slang; obsolete. . . . Probably from C. 16 'nuts to', an enticement to, recorded in a letter from Sir Edward Stafford to Burghley . . ." (Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English).