nutshell

English

Etymology

From Middle English notschelle, from Old English hnutsċiell. Equivalent to nut +‎ shell. (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).