#你不知道的美國大小事 #hardnut
Food Idioms 💬 美國生活用語之其他食物：Nut
上班昏昏欲睡嗎？來嗑點健康的堅果吧～
1⃣ sb. is a nut
2⃣ work for peanuts
3⃣ from soup to nuts
4⃣ in a nutshell
5⃣ sb./sth. is a hard nut
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Other than fruit, what else makes a healthy snack? Nuts! While there may not be as many nut-related idioms (unless you include those related to a certain part of the male anatomy, but we won’t go there), there are still enough to tide you over till the next meal.
除了水果，還有什麼健康的零嘴？堅果！雖然與堅果相關的美國用語不是很多（除非你想討論十八禁的用語，但我們可是清新健康的英語學習頻道），不過已經足以讓你撐到晩餐時間囉！
Let’s start with the word nut itself. Aside from being a tasty snack, 1⃣ a nut can be a strange or crazy person: Just ignore that guy—he’s a nut. A nut can also be an enthusiast: Tom is a tennis nut—he plays every day. Or add an “s” and you have an adjective meaning “crazy”: You’d have to be nuts to go skydiving!
我們先來談談nut這個字。它除了很好吃，nut還可以指「瘋子或怪人」，如： Just ignore that guy—he’s a nut.（不要理那個人──他是個瘋子）。nut也可以指「對某事相當狂熱者」，如：Tom is a tennis nut.（湯姆是個網球愛好者。）也就是說他天天打網球。在nut後面加個s就變成形容詞用法，指「瘋狂的」，如：You’d have to be nuts to go skydiving!（你一定是瘋了才去跳傘！）
Technically, peanuts aren’t nuts (they’re actually legumes), which may be why they’re so cheap. So cheap, in fact, 2⃣ that “peanuts” can mean “a very small amount of money”: Students often have to work for peanuts.
嚴格來說，花生雖然有nut幾個字，但並非堅果類（其實是莢豆的一種）。所以其實花生很便宜，因為太便宜了，所以peanuts可以指「非常便宜，花不了幾毛錢」，如：Students often have to work for peanuts.（學生常為了幾斗米折腰。）
At one time, a formal dinner started with soup and ended with port and nuts, so 3⃣ “from soup to nuts” came to mean “leaving nothing out, from beginning to end”: That store sells everything from soup to nuts.
以前的正餐是以湯品開始，以波特酒與堅果為結尾，所以from soup to nuts後來有「任何東西都有；從頭到尾」的意思。如：That store sells everything from soup to nuts.（那間商店的商品包羅萬象。）
If you’re a tree, what’s inside a nutshell—a nut—is both small and important. For this reason, 4⃣ “in a nutshell” has come to mean “in sum, in brief”: It’s a long story, but in a nutshell, I got fired. Another thing about nutshells is that they’re hard, which makes a nut tough to crack. 5⃣ If a person, problem or situation is “a tough/hard nut to crack,” it means they’re difficult to deal with or understand: I’ve known Bob for a year, but he’s a tough nut to crack.
如果你是一棵樹，堅果外殼裡面會有什麼──既小但又很重要的堅果。因此in a nutshell延伸為「簡單來說，一言以蔽之」。如：It’s a long story, but in a nutshell, I got fired.（說來話長。不過一句話，我被炒魷魚了。）另外，堅果殼太硬，常要花很大力氣才撬得開，所以我們如果說某人事物是a tough/hard nut to crack，就是說他們「很難搞，或很難捉摸」。如：I’ve known Bob for a year, but he’s a tough nut to crack.（我認識鮑伯一年了，不過他真的很謎。）
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