A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1971 (DOST Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1597-1653
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Nevie-nevie-nak. Also: nivinivinack and Nevie-nake. (Jingle based on Neve n. fist: mod. north-western Eng. dial. has neevy-neevy-nack and Sc. and north. Eng. dial. neevy-neevy-nick-nack etc. as the first line in the rhyme used in the children's guessing game of the same name ‘in which one child hides an object in one of his clenched fists … and the other or others must guess which’: see also Montg. Misc. P. xxxii. 68 in Neve n. 1 (b).) — a1605 Montg. Misc. P. xxxii. 65.
Can ȝe not play at ‘nevie nevie nak’? A pretty play whilk children often wse a1598 Ferg. Prov. MS. No. 1096.
Nevie nevie nak quhilk hand wil yow tak?1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. xxii. 94 (Jam.).
Nivinivinack [F. A la nicnoque, one of the games played by Gargantua]
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