gymnick

[George Thompson]

A letter to the Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer (October 8, 1831, p. 2, col. 4) puffing a gymnasium in the city, from "one who has long experienced the benefits of its exercises", is signed "A Gymnick".

The OED has two meaning for this word: 1: a synonym for the adjective "gymnasic", as in "the gymnic games"; 2: a synonym for the noun "gymnastics", as in "Provided it would not impair thy strength,..which these gymnics inordinately taken are apt to do."

Here it is used to mean "one who performs gymnastic exercises", which include pole-vaulting, quoit pitching and the parallel bars.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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