On my walk tonight, I told a guy the surfboard rack on his bike was nifty.
Then I wondered where "nifty" comes from. I would have guessed it was a 1940s or 1950s word, maybe something from WWII. But nope —1868.
The poet who first used it said it was from "magnificat," but the OED is unconvinced. The etymology section says this origin is "unlikely."
#etymology #WordNerd #nifty
Mignon Fogarty /
npub146…fha7e
2023-08-04 03:19:33
Author Public Key
npub146282sc495cyj3zvjvxz6ddqahrarxjw297wuq0arwsrsazrwujqnfha7ePublished at
2023-08-04 03:19:33Event JSON
{
"id": "4397599d47bb1ee94a3eeae62361aac419785576c6ed9419b5baac74fd5c3b44",
"pubkey": "ae947543152d3049444c930c2d35a0edc7d19a4e517cee01fd1ba03874437724",
"created_at": 1691119173,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"t",
"etymology"
],
[
"t",
"wordnerd"
],
[
"t",
"nifty"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://zirk.us/users/grammargirl/statuses/110829186155020288",
"activitypub"
]
],
"content": "On my walk tonight, I told a guy the surfboard rack on his bike was nifty.\n\nThen I wondered where \"nifty\" comes from. I would have guessed it was a 1940s or 1950s word, maybe something from WWII. But nope —1868.\n\nThe poet who first used it said it was from \"magnificat,\" but the OED is unconvinced. The etymology section says this origin is \"unlikely.\"\n\n#etymology #WordNerd #nifty",
"sig": "e9d1434603cfc221247c53e860b9530847fa00c870cad31a6945a22a32bdde386c16cc870b96dde4c0448512cfd2ebe680ad406f1bcea1222a1c473f204237cb"
}