nutmeg
Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2024 5:24 am
Today's frowsty set me travelling through etymologies and the word nutmeg caught my attention.
I never knew that.American English colloquial wooden nutmeg "anything false or fraudulent" is from 1827; Connecticut is called the Nutmeg State "in allusion to the story that wooden nutmegs are there manufactured for exportation." [John Russell Bartlett, "Dictionary of Americanisms," 1859]
I also learned that nutmeg is related to muscat, which itself is not related to Muscat.