Random Note for WOTY: further on _neknominate_

David Barnhart dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM
Wed Feb 19 17:55:45 UTC 2014


The _nek-_ is obviously a corruption of _neck-_, meaning "to guzzle."  The
latter form attested in eOED from 16th century as noted in Greene.  Neither
form in this meaning is accounted for in American slang dictionaries
including HDAS.  Australian and other "World" Englishes represented in
dictionaries don't present _nek_ with any pertinent senses.  I suspect the
"nek" spelling is the kind of contraction typical of modern "high-speed"
communication, e.g. _u_ for _you_, etc.



So far I have found a wealth of forms and derivatives, e.g. neknominee,
neknominator, neknomination, neknominate, and neknominating.



DKB



barnhart at highlands.com

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