I got as far as discovering that nut as in crazy is the earliest and nutter and nut case are derived from it, and nut was (and still is) slang for head, plus the terms nuts and nutty also meant crazy, so it’s a fairly obvious step for nut to pick up that definition, too.
Nutter, nut and nutcase have been used to refer to crazy people for a lot longer than nut has been used to refer to wanking
I am wondering the etymogy of the slang usage now. What about nuts did people look at an go “yeah that can apply to people who are mentally unwell?”
Was it the fact a walnut kinda resembles a brain? 🤔
I got as far as discovering that nut as in crazy is the earliest and nutter and nut case are derived from it, and nut was (and still is) slang for head, plus the terms nuts and nutty also meant crazy, so it’s a fairly obvious step for nut to pick up that definition, too.