nikked

v. (past)

Gaw nykkedWA pres. pl. nyk

'denied, refused, said no' (Modern English nick)

Etymology

Probably derived from the OE negated pron. nic ‘not I, no’ < ne ic (thus e.g. OED3, MED, TGD, GDS; and see further Zettersten 101, Dance 2003: 399). ON input has only been suggested by Kullnick (by comparison with Sw neka). For this v. cp. also early Gotl. naikka, ODan nege, Norw neikka, apparently derived from the ON interjection nei plus a k-extension (so Hellquist, Torp); there is also OIcel neka ‘to deny’ (recorded once only in ONP, from a source dated 1348), but this is probably better referred to the adv. PGmc *ne, *ni. The absence of palatalization of non-initial /k/ is not a conclusive test on ON loan.

PGmc Ancestor

*ne, *ni + *eka

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

neka 'to deny'
(ONP neka (vb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Norw neikka, OSw neka, Sw neka; cp. Icel neka

OE Cognate

nic (pron.) ‘not I, no’

Phonological and morphological markers

[absence of palatalization of */k/] (possibly diagnostic)

Summary category

CCC2c

Attestation

MED cites a range of instances, only one of which shows a <ch> spelling (AW MS G).  Largely restricted to N and alliterative contexts by the later 14c., when almost all occurrences come in collocation with nay.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 706, 2471; WA 2339

Bibliography

MED nikken (v.1) , OED3 nick (v.1) , HTOED ,and HTOED , Dance nikked, de Vries neka, Mag. neka, Hellquist neka, Torp NnEO neikka, AEW niccan