Etymology

in a nutshell

Today it means: In summary; briefly or simply. Full definition →

New Latin in nuce
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The story

  1. New Latin · calque ofin nuce
  2. English todayin a nutshell

Calque of New Latin in nuce, derived from an anecdote in Pliny the Elder, who ascribes to Cicero the claim that the whole Iliad was once written on parchment and enclosed within a nutshell (Naturalis Historia 7.21.85). Compare typologically Czech stručný, stručně (< struk).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.