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nugget

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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A gold nugget (small, compact chunk).

Etymology

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Uncertain, first attested in reference to animals & people in Scotland and in reference to ore chunks in Australia. Possibly from southern English nug (“lump, block”) or Scottish knudge/nudge (“short, sturdy person or animal”) +‎ -et (“forming diminutives”) or from rebracketed alteration of an ingot as a ni(n)got.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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nugget (countable and uncountable, plural nuggets)

  1. (countable) A small, compact chunk or clump.
    a gold nugget
    • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 146:
      Rough men brought pickle bottles full of nuggets. Mysterious dirty-looking calico bags were opened, disclosing small quantities of water-worn flaky gold, which had been washed out of the beds of rivers with a cradle.
  2. (countable) A chicken nugget.
    • 2014, Laurie David, The Family Cooks:
      By now, we hope you have said “no” to processed nuggets and fingers. Instead, how about taking some real chicken, tossing it with real eggs, a little tangy mustard, and a crunchy quinoa coating?
  3. (countable) A tidbit of something valuable.
    a nugget of wisdom
    a nugget of truth
    • 2023 July 10, Zachary Woolfe, “Review: Ted Hearne’s Sweet, Sad American Elegy”, in The New York Times‎[1]:
      As he has in superb works like “The Source” (based on the Afghanistan war logs leaked by Chelsea Manning) and “Sound From the Bench” (which set excerpts from Supreme Court proceedings), Hearne takes these found-text nuggets and gives them music that moves from lushly meditative to frenetic and obsessively repetitive […]
  4. (countable) A small piece of tasty food, a tidbit.
  5. (uncountable) A type of boot polish.
  6. (countable) A bud from the Cannabis sativa plant, especially one that is potent.
  7. (countable, slang) An inexperienced, newly trained fighter pilot.
    • 2009, Nick Scipio, Nereids‎[2]:
      Jack stifled a smirk at the ensign's expressionless non-reaction. He'd been a nugget himself once, the new guy fresh from training.
  8. (computing theory) A partial description gleaned from data mining.
    • 2002, Data Mining: A Heuristic Approach, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 93:
      We have previously said that the heuristic algorithms produce good nuggets for most classes and most λ values […]
  9. (slang, countable) A person with no arms or legs; a basket case.
  10. (Australia, slang, countable) An item that is typically old and of dubious quality or poor condition.

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Portuguese: nugget

Translations

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Verb

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nugget (third-person singular simple present nuggets, present participle nuggeting or (rare) nuggetting, simple past and past participle nuggeted or (rare) nuggetted)

  1. To find nuggets (of something valuable)
    • 1852, James Bonwick, Notes of a Gold Digger: and Gold Digger's Guide, Melbourne: R. Connebee, page 8:
      The other day, you are told, a fellow nuggetted ten or twenty pounds weight, and, of course, you see no reason why half a hundred weight might not be lying snugly ensconced awaiting the revelations of your pick.
  2. (slang, Australia, New Zealand) To smear a male's genitals or anus with boot polish or similar substance against his will.
    • 2014 June 17, Helen Davidson, “Blackballing and blanket beatings: decades of abuse at defence training school revealed”, in The Guardian‎[3], →ISSN:
      Among the complaints to Dart, “blackballing” or “nuggetting” was the most common form of sexual abuse carried out by recruits, and referred to a boy being forcibly held down “while boot polish, toothpaste or another substance was forcibly smeared on his genitals or anal area, sometimes with a hard brush.”

References

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French

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Etymology

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    English nugget

    Noun

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    nugget m (plural nuggets)

    1. (France, food) a chicken nugget
      Synonyms: croquette de poulet, nugget de poulet
    2. (France, by extension) a croquette, a food item shaped like a chicken nugget, with a crispy exterior
      Synonym: croquette

    Derived terms

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    Portuguese

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    Fast food chicken nuggets from McDonald's.

    Etymology

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    Unadapted borrowing from English nugget.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    nugget m (plural nuggets)

    1. chicken nugget
      • 2012, Daniel Galera, Barba ensopada de sangue, Editora Companhia das Letras, →ISBN, page 205:
        Ela passava as tardes livres da infância vendo a Sessão da Tarde na televisão e comendo nuggets com ketchup.
        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

    Spanish

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    Etymology

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    Unadapted borrowing from English nugget.

    Pronunciation

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    • IPA(key): /ˈnaɡet/ [ˈna.ɣ̞et̪]
    • IPA(key): /ˈnuɡet/ [ˈnu.ɣ̞et̪]
    • Syllabification: nug‧get

    Noun

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    nugget m (plural nuggets)

    1. chicken nugget

    Usage notes

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    • According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

    Further reading

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    Swedish

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    Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
    Wikipedia sv

    Etymology

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    Borrowed from English nugget.

    Noun

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    nugget c

    1. a gold nugget
    2. a nugget (food product, for example a chicken nugget)

    References

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    • “nugget”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
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