Names and Etymology
The names are held to derive from Common Germanic *nikwus or *nikwis(i), derived from PIE *neigw ("wash"). It is related to Sanskrit nḗnēkti ("wash"), Greek νίζω nízō and νίπτω níptō, and Irish nigther.
The form neck appears in English and Swedish (näck or nek). The Swedish form is derived from Old Swedish neker, which corresponds to Old Icelandic nykr (gen. nykrs), and nykk in Norwegian Nynorsk. In Finnish, the word is näkki. In Old Danish, the form was nikke and in modern Danish and Norwegian Bokmål it is nøk(ke). The Icelandic nykur is a horselike creature.
In Middle Low German, it was called necker and in Middle Dutch nicker (c.f. also Nickel or Nikkel plus Kobolt) . The Old High German form nihhus also meant "crocodile", while the Old English nicor could mean both a "water monster" and a "hippopotamus".
Common bynames are the Swedish Strömkarlen and the Norwegian Fossegrim. Since the Scandinavian version can transform himself into a horse-like kelpie, he is also called Bäckahästen (the "brook horse").
Read more about this topic: Nokke
Famous quotes containing the words names and/or etymology:
“It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything. I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words.... The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)