"Chick" = nickname for "Charles"

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Tue Sep 19 01:56:22 UTC 2006


On 9/18/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> On 9/18/06, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
> >
> > 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).
>
> And Chick Fraser debuted with the Louisville Colonels in 1896.

Charles Fraser played in Chicago's City League before going to the
major leagues. Proquest has a Sep 28, 1891 Chicago Tribune article
about a City League game, and Fraser was already called "Chick" then.


--Ben Zimmer

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