Fwd: "pencil-neck" - Word of the Day from the OED

Dave Monroe against.the.dave at gmail.com
Sat May 29 23:04:00 CDT 2010


1968 P. K. DICK Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep? 79 I'll have to
break your pencil neck

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From: <oedwotd at oup.com>
Date: Sat, May 29, 2010 at 7:30 PM
Subject: "pencil-neck" - Word of the Day from the OED
To: OEDWOTD-AMER-L at webber.uk.hub.oup.com


OED Online Word of the Day
________________________________

pencil-neck, n. and adj.

DRAFT ENTRY Dec. 2005
slang (usu. depreciative). orig. U.S.

Brit. /pnslnk/, U.S. /pnslnk/  [< PENCIL n. + NECK n.1]

    A. n.

    1. A long thin neck.

1968 P. K. DICK Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep? 79 I'll have to
break your pencil neck. 1976 Washington Post 15 Mar. C9/1 Pinky's poor
pencil neck isn't likely to develop added musculature. 2002 Sunday
Times (Nexis) 16 June, I have a pencil neck but my shoulders are as
wide as any man's.

    2. An excessively studious or effete person; a person with a poor
physique (as exemplified by a thin or scrawny neck); a weakling. Hence
as a general term of abuse.

1968 C. F. BAKER et al College Undergraduate Slang Study (typescript)
169 Pencilneck, a person who studies a great deal. 1987 C. HIAASEN
Double Whammy (1989) 244 Okay, pencil-neck, let's hear the bad news.
1990 N. BAKER Room Temperature ix. 73 They wouldn't even know what a
pencil neck was until I ramped up and began a course of concentrated
reading more fanatically comprehensive even than De Quincey's
eighteen-hour-a-day burst at Oxford. 1991 Musclemag Mar. 109/1 Society
has jobs for strong-men, just as it has jobs for pencil-necks. 2001 P.
TSATSOULINE Russian Kettlebell Challenge i. 3 Poddubny made himself a
16kg caneso he could amuse himself watching pencilnecks at coat checks
drop it on their toes.

    B. adj. (attrib.).    Thin, scrawny; weak, effete.

1977 ‘J. LEGEND’ (title of song) Pencil neck geek. 1987 Los Angeles
Times (Nexis) 30 Mar. III. 3/1 Let's face it, we're a nation of
pencil-neck wimps. 1998 J. CAHILL Meadowlands in Sopranos (television
shooting script) 1st Ser. 43 You pencil-neck fuck, I could pop your
head like a blister.

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