Random Note for WOTY 2014: neknominate, -ion, -ed, -ing

[Baker, John]

The Know Your Meme page linked by Larry indicates that "neknominate" is a contraction of "neck and nominate," and Wikipedia similarly indicates that "neck and nominate" is an alternative term.  "Nominate" is straightforward enough:  The drinker nominates the next person who is supposed to drink a pint in one gulp.  "Neck," in this sense, was unfamiliar to me, but some of the definitions on Urban Dictionary indicate that "neck" can mean to drink too much, to drink quickly, or to down a drink in one gulp.  I don't know if this is in HDAS; I can't check right now, and the uses seem to be British anyway.


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Laurence Horn
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 10:13 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Random Note for WOTY 2014: neknominate, -ion, -ed, -ing

On Feb 19, 2014, at 7:21 AM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:

> On Feb 19, 2014, at 3:51 AM, David Barnhart <dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM> wrote:
>
>>
>> Neknominate: 'Lethal' drinking game sweeps social media
>>
>> By Peter Wilkinson and Isa Soares, CNN
>>
>> updated 10:47 AM EST, Tue February 18, 2014
>
> there's a Wikipedia page:
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neknominate
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

And various other news reports, e.g. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/neknominate.  But none I've seen so far provide an etymology.

LH

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

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