"Chick" = nickname for "Charles"

Jim Parish jparish at SIUE.EDU
Tue Sep 19 01:18:54 UTC 2006


Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> An "early" printed ex. of this (obs.?) U.S. alternative to "Chuck":
>
>   1913 Charles E. Van Loan _The Lucky Seventh_ (Boston: Small, Maynard) 238:
>   "Hello, Chick ole boy!"..."Charles!" she said. "Who are these men?"

There's Chick Stahl, an outfielder for the Boston Braves and Red Sox, 1897-
1906; I'm not sure when he picked up the name, but it certainly predates this
example (and probably the 1904 example Jonathan mentioned).

Jim Parish
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