A newly popular word

[Jonathan Lighter]

In my experience, "wingnut" simply means a "nut." It's been around for a some years. Any nuances based on the political or sitcom connotations of "wing" are recent, however. (A literal wingnut, of course, is a hardware nut with little "wings" that allow it to be hand-tightened.)

Members of an aircraft carrier's air wing also have been known as "wingnuts."

Now "moon-bat' !  THAT'S new.  (The old "National Lampoon" had "fruitbat" as a
synonym for "fruitcake.")

JL

"Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Mullins, Bill"
Subject: Re: A newly popular word
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Probably comes from "left wing nut" or "right wing nut". I've seen it
applied to nuts on either side of the spectrum (along with "moonbat", which
I like better).

"Wing Nut" is also seen on discussion boards about the show "The West Wing",
and is used to describe a fan of the show. It doesn t seem to have a
perjorative sense, there.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rebecca Larche Moreton [mailto:mlrlm at OLEMISS.EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 4:39 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: A newly popular word
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Rebecca Larche Moreton
> Subject: A newly popular word
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> Can anyone tell me what "wing-nut" means in articles on
> recent politics, and something about its use in whatever its
> meaning is there? Thanks in advance.
>
> Becky
>


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