Where did the term 'Nutmeg' come from?

[CyphaPSU]

I was trying to think this one through, but I can't figure it out. How did 'nutmeg' come to be applied to the action of slipping the ball through a defender's legs?

[Danks81]

From Wikipedia:

"Nutmeg and mace are two spices derived from the same plant, the nutmeg tree (Myristica fragrans)

The nutmeg tree is indigenous to the Banda Islands of Indonesia but is also grown in the Caribbean, especially in Grenada. Several commercial products are produced from the nutmeg tree, nutmeg and mace being the best known. Nutmeg is the actual seed of the tree, roughly egg-shaped and about an inch long, while mace is the dried "lacy", reddish covering of the seed."

So I think it means that you make the other person look like a one inch tall egg. But I could be mistaken.
:)

[fedwood]

nutmeg is hilucenogenic
and when you nutmeg someone so many times it feels so good that you begin to hiluconate

[Cassano]

A perfect example of why foreign languages are easier than English. In msot other countries, Nutmegs are referred to as "Tunnels". Makes sense.

[picaraza]

I think its rhyming slang - "meg" = "leg"

[beachesl]

HOW DID THE NUTMEG GET ITS NAME?

"Can you tell me why the 'nutmeg' is so called, and how long this term has been in use?" asks Dave Birrell. "I refuse to believe my girlfriend's suggestion that it comes from an abbreviation of a hapless defender's cry: 'Not my legs.'"

"The term nutmeg is cockney rhyming slang for leg," says Pete Tomlin. Therefore, when the ball is played between an opponent's legs, a player or fan shouts 'Nutmegs."

Jez Simmonds agrees: "According to none other than popular Sky pundit and former Fulham favourite Jimmy Hill, the expression nutmeg is little more than dodgy rhyming slang."

"Nutmeg equals leg, apparently, and was thus coined during the 1940s to describe the skill of placing the ball between an opponent's legs before retrieving it t'other side.

"Although I wasn't hugely convinced by this explanation, Jimmy generally knows his stuff - and, like me, is a Balham SW12 boy."

But what about the 'nut' part? According to Alex Leith's book 'Over the Moon, Brian - The Language of Football' "nuts" - a term commonly used for nutmeg in the north of England "refers to the testicles of the player through whose legs the ball has been passed and nutmeg is just a development from this." So now you know.

excerpt from:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/news/theknowledge/0,9204,623070,00.html

Well, I don't know about you, but "nuts' must be the slang for testicles around the whole world!

[352gialloblu]

It's not rhyming slang, it's testicles, guys:
http://www.outofthefryingpan.com/spices/images/nutmeg.jpg

[beachesl]

You got three of them? Reminds me of the Monty Python skit about the man with 3 buttocks.

[goyoureddevils]

You got three of them? Reminds me of the Monty Python skit about the man with 3 buttocks.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Brilliant skit that was!
You've just made me want to go home and bust out my tapes of the show!

[Catfish]

352gialloblu,

Love your signature. Remind me to rep you. I have given out too much rep in the last 24 hrs.

I'm glad someone ACTUALLY answered the man's question. I had always wondered where the term nutmeg originated.