They're as self-centered as we are!

Robin Hamilton robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM
Tue Nov 3 22:35:28 UTC 2009


> From a Britspeak letter to the editor of ZDNet:
>
> ... " 'borrow' (some would say _'knick'_)" ...
>
> -Wilson

Shame he didn't get the spelling right -- it's usually "nick".  Not the
earliest recorded use, but a rather gorgeous book-title nonetheless:

        The Nicker Nicked, or, The Cheats of Gaming Discovered. London:
[s.n.], 1669.

It's also slang ("the Nick") for a police station.  There's a somewhat
sexist joke invovlving a bunco squad detective [or is that term too
parochially American?] and an hysterical woman.

Robin Hamilton

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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