Question: why are doughnuts called doughnuts?
Answer: The earliest known recorded usage of the term dates to an 1808 short story describing a spread of "fire-cakes and dough-nuts". ... Irving described "balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks." These "nuts" of fried dough might now be called doughnut holes (see holes section).