Alteration of nuts to avoid vulgar nuts (“testicles”)
Meanings
(euphemistic, slang) Crazy; nuts.
"You'd be plumb nerts" says he, "to think of it." 1928, Joseph Patrick McEvoy, Grosset and Dunlap present Show girl, page 47:
But sweet Flossie Farmer, the lovely snake charmer/Was nerts for a snake in the grass. 1935, Elsie Carlisle, “Sweet Flossie Farmer (the Lovely Snake Charmer)”:
Alteration of nuts to avoid vulgar nuts (“testicles”)
Meanings
(euphemistic, slang) Nuts! Expression of dismay.
FOUND HIM 'TERRIBLY NICE' She Wonders What He Thought When She Said, 'Oh, Nerts!' After a Bad Shot. 1933 August 19, “GIRL GOLFER TELLS OF BESTING PRINCE; Beatrice Gottlieb Returns With Trophies of Victory From British Heir”, in New York Times: