The story
- Old English · inherited fromnicor“water demon”
- English todayOld Nick
Originally 17th century. Apparently a special use of the forename Nick, perhaps in jocular or contrastive reference to Saint Nicholas. Alternatively, it may be derived from nicker, or some other derivative of Old English nicor (“water demon”).
Words from the same roots
Old Englishnicor all →
nicorknucker
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.