nikker

nikker (plural nikkers)

1. (uncommon) Alternative form of nicker (“A sea devil.”).
   • 1877, Charles Mackay, The Gaelic Etymology of the Languages of Western Europe: And More Especially of the English and Lowland Scotch, and Their Slang, Cant, and Colloquial Dialects, page 265:

     Davy Jones's Locker [...] A sailor's name for a principal sea-devil, a nikker. - HALLIWELL.

   • 1919, Donald Alexander Mackenzie, The World's Heritage of Epical, Heroic and Romantic Literature, page 12:

     ... and killing sea-nikkers by night. Alone will I combat with this demon, the giant Grendel . . . I shall wrestle for life, foe against foe.

   • 1961, Sietze Buning, A Linguistic Analysis of Words Referring to Monsters in Beowulf, volume 2, page 280:

     Whether the monster slain is a sea-dragon or a nikker remains a problem. […]

   • 2018 March 29, Edith Elizabeth Wardale, Revival: Chapters on Old English Literature (1935), Routledge, →ISBN:

     If the poet has mixed up Danish and English scenery in his mere, and the "nikkers" and other monsters have no business in an English lake, they are most certainly there.

   • 2022 June 12, Louis Tracy, The Greatest Mysteries of Louis Tracy: 14 Novels in One Edition, DigiCat:

     "A nikker is Davy Jones, / Just one more plug, an' a swig at the jug, / An' up with the skull an' bones."

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɪkər/

• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: nik‧ker
• Rhymes: -ɪkər

Borrowed from English nigger, from a Romance language, ultimately from Latin niger (“shining black”); but also influenced by etymology 2 as nixies were believed to be of a dark colour. Doublet of neger.

nikker m (plural nikkers, diminutive nikkertje n)

1. (derogatory, ethnic slur, offensive) a nigger (offensive slur for a black person) [from 19th c.]

   Synonyms: blauwe, roetmop

• n-woord (rare, euphemistic)

From Middle Dutch nicker (“nix, nixie; demon”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *nikwus, *nikwis (“nix, water-sprite”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *neygʷ- (“to wash”).

nikker m (plural nikkers, diminutive nikkertje n)

1. (mythology, dated, now likely to be confused with the ethnic slur) a water spirit, especially one who lures (young) people to drown; a neck, nix, nixie [from 16th c.]
   • 1873, R. R. Rijkens, De reiziger. Aardrijkskundige beschrijvingen en schilderingen. Leesboek voor de hoogste klasse der lagereschool, 3rd revised edition, J. B. Wolters, page 94:

     Het volk in de nabijheid der hooge bergmeren gelooft nog aan allerlei kobolden, elfen, nikkers, water- en berggeesten.

     The people in the vicinity of the high mountain lakes still believe in all kinds of kobolds, elves, necks, water sprites and mountain spirits.

   • 1924, Lodewijk Opdebeek, "Peters Kind" (part 6, "Muziek"), De Vlaamsche Gids, page 289.

     Hij vermaande hem zoetjes, sprak van Nikker en Bloedkaros, maar Fikske liet zich niet afbangen, 't kon hem allemaal niet schelen: het manneke, daar diep beneden, trok hem te veel aan.

     He gently reprimanded him, talked about the nixie and the child-butchering carriage, but Fikske wouldn't let himself get scared of it, he couldn't care less about it all: the little man, down below there, attracted him far too much for that.

   Synonyms: nix, watergeest

2. (obsolete) a demon, a devil [16th–19th c.]

   Synonyms: demoon, droes, duivel

Related to Arabic نَكِرَ (nakira, “to deny”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɪk.kɛr/

nikker (imperfect jnikker, past participle mnikker, verbal noun tinkir)

1. to slow (something or someone)

nikker

1. present of nikke