nougat » nugget

Chiefly in:   chewy nugget

Classification: English – questionable

Spotted in the wild:

  • “…peanuts, caramel and a delicious chewy nugget in the center.” (from Stocklin)
  • “a second flavor in its Awesome candy bar line - the Awesome Nut & Chew Bar (chewy nugget with almonds and honey) covered with dark chocolate.” (link)
  • “We had a chance to take a beta of the game for a spin, so let’s get down to the chewy nugget center of what the beta had in store for us.” (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • Rex Stocklin (American Dialect Society mailing list, 15 May 2005)

I’ve marked this as “questionable” because it’s often hard to distinguish references to chewy nuggets of things from references to chewy nougat (literally, as in the first two examples, or metaphorically, as in the third). The word “nugget” is, of course, much more frequent and less specialized than “nougat”, so a reshaping would be natural.

| link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/05/31 |

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