3 ms·
Back before Nixon, Dick was a perfectly allowable shortening of a first name for [edit: mostly] white American men called Richard. Dick Feynman, Dick van Dyke,
by richardhod 8y ago
Back before Nixon, Dick was a perfectly allowable shortening of a first name for [edit: mostly] white American men called Richard. Dick Feynman, Dick van Dyke, Dick Sargent, even Dick Cheney. Only since the 70s / 80s has it become a perjorative among younger generations, perhaps because of the Liar in Chief.
- finnh 8y agoonly white?
- HorizonXP 8y agoI think this is a fair question. I think it was predominantly white men. Never heard of a black man named Richard being called Dick. I think they usually use Rick instead. Richard ~= Rick == Dick
- jdhzzz 8y agoI never got used to Richie Allen requesting that he be called Dick Allen https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/allendi01.shtml https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/allendi01.shtml. I had no preference, but as a Phillies fan I had heard him referred to as Richie Allen a zillion times his first few years on the team so Dick Allen always clanged off my ears.
- Zak 8y agoThe name Richard has significantly declined in popularity over the past century, and use of Dick as a nickname for it has declined even more. Its use as a term of contempt predates Nixon by about 300 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_(slang) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_(slang)
- tzs 8y agoHere's an interesting article on the history of shortening of Richard, Dick in particular [1]. [1] http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/04/how-dick-came-to-be-short-for-richard/ http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/04/how-dick-cam...