nutshell

English

Etymology

From Middle English notschelle, from Old English hnutsċiell, from Proto-West Germanic *hnutskallju, equivalent to nut +‎ shell. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Nuteskele, Nuteskil (“nutshell”), Dutch notenschaal (“nutshell”), German Nussschale (“nutshell”). (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “needs more explanation on sense 2”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnʌt.ʃɛl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

nutshell (plural nutshells)

1. The shell that surrounds the kernel of a nut.
   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.:

     For men be now tratlers and tellers of tales;
     What tidings at Totnam, what newis in Wales,
     What ſhippis are ſailing to Scalis Malis?
     And all is not worth a couple of nut ſhalis.

2. A short book summarizing an area of law.
3. (nautical) A small boat; a boat considered small in comparison to the seas.
   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 182:

     [A]t last the fishing-line stood straight out behind, and the stone weights jumped along the tops of the billows, while the seas - notwithstanding the guiding hand of the pilot sought to avoid them - broke over our little nutshell, and sent the spray high above mast and sail.

Derived terms

• cashew nutshell liquid
• in a nutshell

 

Translations

the shell that surrounds the kernel of a nut

• Catalan: closca de nou f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 堅果殼／坚果壳 (zh) (jiānguǒ qiào, jiānguǒ ké)

• Danish: nøddeskal c
• Dutch: notendop (nl) m
• Finnish: pähkinänkuori
• French: coque (fr) f, coquille (fr) f
• Galician: casca de noz f
• German: Nussschale (de) f
• Hungarian: dióhéj (hu)
• Indonesian: kulit kacang
• Irish: blaosc cnó f
• Italian: guscio di noce
• Japanese: 木の実の殻 (きのみのから, kinomi no kara)
• Latin: naucum n
• Old English: hnutsċiell f
• Portuguese: casca de noz
• Russian: оре́ховая скорлупа́ f (oréxovaja skorlupá)
• Spanish: cáscara de nuez f
• Swedish: nötskal (sv) n
• Ukrainian: шкаралупа горіха f (škaralupa horixa)
• Welsh: (North) plisgyn m, (South) masgl m

Verb

nutshell (third-person singular simple present nutshells, present participle nutshelling, simple past and past participle nutshelled)

1. (transitive) To summarize (from the term in a nutshell).