[Ads-l] Trivia: heard _nut up_, HDAS "go crazy or go berserk" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY RDECOM AMRDEC (US)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

I've only heard the phrase used as a synonym for "man up," "cowboy up," "put on your big boy pants," "grow a pair,"; i.e., quit being such a chickenshit and go ahead and do whatever it was you've been saying you'll do, instead of being such a puss.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilson Gray
> Sent: Friday, August 19, 2016 3:57 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: [Non-DoD Source] Trivia: heard _nut up_, HDAS "go crazy or go berserk"
> 
> 
> Reality TV, white speaker:
> 
> "When she saw me with my new girl, she just _nutted up_!"
> 
> I haven't heard anyone say that in 65 years and never before anybody white say it before nor have I heard it used with that meaning before.
> 
> Back in the The Lou in the '50's, to _nut up_ was to "burst into uncontrolled laughter, turning and bending at the waist, slapping thigh,
> guffawing," etc. More-mature readers may recall this as one of Sammy Davis, Jr.'s shticks. Younger readers may have seen this parodied -
> as a general black thing,  as it it is: been there, done that; and not as anyone's particular shtick- on Key & Peele.
> 
> My WAG, FWIW, is that both uses derive ultimately from _go nuts_. But...
> 
> Youneverknow.
> 
> --
> -Wilson
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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