(Thisetymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium.)
nicker (pluralnicker)
- (British, slang)Pound sterling.
This coat cost me 50nicker.
1998,Guy Ritchie,Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (motion picture), spoken by Tom (Jason Flemyng):Seems? Well, this seems to be a waste of my time. That is 900nicker in any shop you're lucky enough to find one in. And you're complaining about 200? What school of finance did you study?
Imitative; from 1774.
nicker (pluralnickers)
- A softneighing sound characteristic of ahorse.
- Hypernym:neigh
- Coordinate term:(sometimes synonymous)whinny
- Asnigger or suppressed laugh.
nicker (third-person singular simple presentnickers,present participlenickering,simple past and past participlenickered)
- To make a softneighing sound characteristic of ahorse.
- Hypernym:neigh
- Coordinate term:(sometimes synonymous)whinny
1971,Lin Carter,The Quest of Kadji, Wildside Press, published1999,page187:Behind him, old Akthoob was grumbling loudly, saying something about the midday meal, and Haral, the black Feridoon pony, snuffing in the old, familiar scent of the green meadows of the Chaya's banks, the warm sweet smells of home, wasnickering eagerly.
1988,William Nack,Secretariat: The Making of a Champion, Da Capo Press, published2002,page58:"Nasrullah'snickerin’, Mr. Arthur. Somethin's wrong."
"Hell, he'snickered before. Henickers all the time!"
Robinson and Snow looked at each other, saying nothing for a moment, and finally Snow told Hancock that Nasrullah nevernickered in the paddock.
2012, Jim Campbell,Bobcat,Xlibris,page21:After a few minutes, the mare walked over andnickered loudly in his ear, and he immediately got to his feet and stripped the gear from the waiting horse.
- To produce asnigger or suppressed laugh.
Fromnick +-er.
nicker (pluralnickers)
- (obsolete, slang) One of thenightbrawlers ofLondon formerly noted forbreakingwindows withhalfpence.
- 1713-1714,John Arbuthnot,Memoirs of Martin Scriblerus
- your modern musicians want art to defend their windows from commonnickers
- The cuttinglip which projects downward at the edge of aboringbit and cuts acirculargroove in the wood to limit the size of the hole that is bored.
- (informal) Someone whonicks (steals) something, athief.
1934, Eddie Browne,Road Pirate: The Confessions of a Motor Bandit, page141:He[…] was far more interested in the fact that I was a car thief and an expert driver than that I was a bandit.[…] Carnicker, are you?
nicker (third-person singular simple presentnickers,present participlenickering,simple past and past participlenickered)
- (UK, informal) Tosnatch orsteal.
FromMiddle Englishniker, fromOld Englishnicor, fromProto-Germanic*nikwis. Cognate withGermanNix(“water demon”) andGermanNixe(“mermaid”); also related toOld Norsenykr(“water demon”) (see there for further descendants).Doublet ofnix.
nicker (pluralnickers)
- A type of mythological sea creature orsea monster; also, awater sprite; anix ornixie; amermaid ormerman.
1891,Edwin Sidney Hartland,The Science of Fairy Tales, page48:And in another tale, told at Kemnitz of theNicker, as he is there called, when he asks the midwife how much he owes her, she answers that she will take no more from him than from other people.
Mispronunciation ofnigger.
nicker (pluralnickers)
- (euphemistic, vulgar, derogatory, offensive, ethnicslur)nigger.
