Pumpernickel (1766)

[Benjamin Fortson]

Quite honestly, I hadn't formed an opinion about Nickel and goblins, so I
just stetted the etymology when I did my review (plus, I knew that Nickel
had this as a possible meaning). But, now that you're drawing my
attention to it, it would indeed be easier to get from "farting Nick" to
"boor" than from "farting goblin" to "boor", so I'll put a note in our database
that this might need correction.
        Thanks as always...

Ben

> Well, thanks.  It's puzzling; I suppose, then, that you don't buy the
> "farting goblin" thesis your fellow ADH4 etymologists swear by?  The
> OED is even more non-committal, the "uncertainty" implicitly
> extending to the farting as well as the farter:
>
> [G., also pompernickel (in use 1663); also (earlier) a lout, a booby.
> Origin uncertain.]
>
> Larry
>