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jennarenn commented on the word cute as the dickens
Just read this as "cute as the chickens".
January 4, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word cute as the dickens
Wow. That's even cuter.
January 4, 2008
seanahan commented on the word cute as the dickens
I prefer cute as a button, which doesn't really mean anything more, but sounds nicer to me.
January 4, 2008
skipvia commented on the word cute as the dickens
Who is this "Dickens," anyway. I've heard the name used in a variety of ways, including:
"He's a little dickens." (He's a troublemaker.)
"That hurt like the dickens." (That hurt...ummm...a lot.)
"What the dickens do you mean by that?" (Pretty obvious...)
January 4, 2008
reesetee commented on the word cute as the dickens
Good question, skipvia--it seems to be a regular replacement for "hell" or "hellion" (the latter being an excellent word in its own right).
Wait--I looked it up. Here's what OED says:
App. substituted for ‘devil’, as having the same initial sound. It has been suggested to be worn down from devilkin or deilkin, but no evidence of this has been found. Dickin or Dickon, dim. of Dick (cf. Wilkin, Watkin, Jankin or Jenkin, Simkin) was in use long before the earliest known instance of this, and Dickens as a surname was probably also already in existence.
I for one never think of the devil as cute, however.
January 4, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word cute as the dickens
Oh, no, he's very cute. He has to be, see, to attract all us sinners to do his evil bidding.
January 5, 2008
reesetee commented on the word cute as the dickens
So that's our excuse....
January 7, 2008