Like the Dickens

For some reason, I thought of this phrase this morning while I was watching my cat play like the dickens, and wondered about it's history. I was sure it would have something to do with Charles Dickens, the great author. Perhaps something "hurt like the dickens" would reference the agony that some of his characters endure. Boy - Was I ever wrong!

"Dickens" is actually another word for devil, and this phrase has a history back to the 1600s, several hundred years before the author was born. A "dickens oath" is derived from the use of "Nick" or "Old Nick". Following is from a website on the origin of cliches:

The etymology of 'nick' can be traced back a lot further - 'nicor' was Anglo-Saxon for monster. The devil-association is derived from ancient Scandinavian folklore: a Nick was mythological water-wraith or kelpie, found in the sea, rivers, lakes, even waterfalls - half-child or man, half-horse - that took delight when travellers drowned. Beginning several hundred years ago both protestant and catholic clergy commonly referred to these creatures, presumably because the image offered another scary device to persuade simple people to be ever god-fearing (".....or Old Nick will surely get you when you next go to the river...") which no doubt reinforced the Nick imagery and its devil association.

Kind of makes you think twice about using this one, doesn't it?