The Decline Of Dick

I noticed it a long time ago, but I never mentioned it, or wrote about it, until now.

Fewer Dicks are around any more.

Dick is a nickname for the given name of Richard. According to the site associatedcontent.com, here is how it came to be:

Medieval times brought about Dick as a nickname for Richard. The Normans, descendents of Vikings who resided in northern France, had a unique way of trilling their "r" sounds. When the English attempted to pronounce Richard as the Normans did, it was reported that they could not quite do it correctly and the "r" came off sounding like a "d". Thus Dick became a pet name for Richard.

My grandfather was named Richard. My father had two good friends named Richard. A good friend has a father named Richard. All were nicknamed Dick.

But as for men of my age, the nickname for Richard is mostly Rick and sometimes Rich.

I truly don't know offhand why it changed. I ought to do research on it.

But I believe it has come to this for these two reasons:

• Dick as a synonym for penis
  
• A man who's a fool and ass.
• Richard Milhous Nixon, who used to be the most evil man who ran the U.S. government until Dick Cheney.

While I believe fewer men named Dick walk the earth, I bet the same percentage of men who are dicks are around. Because a dick by any other name is a dick.