The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #95824 Message #1868528
Posted By: MartinRyan
25-Oct-06 - 03:24 PM
Thread Name: BS: Who are 'The Dickens'?
Subject: RE: BS: Who are 'The Dickens'?
Partridge's dictionary of slang, with some editing, gives the following:
The DEVIL , the DEUCE esp. in exclamations. late 16C. - 20 C. (currency). Shakespeare, Gay,... (old examples). In origin a euphemistic evasion for devil ; either an attrition from devilkin or dicken or dickon (the last two are ords quoted from Ernest Weekley's Etymological Dictionary of Modern Englsih which I haven't seen.