From: odysseus1479-at@yahoo-dot.ca   
      
   Gary Mark Stocker wrote:   
   >   
   >     Why is Satan referred to as Old Nick?   
      
   One explanation that's been offered refers to the word _nicker_ or   
   _nicor_, from Northern European legend, for an aquatic monster   
   hostile to humanity -- perhaps similar to the Celtic _each uisge_.   
   OTOH the _OED_ says there's no evidence for such a connection, and   
   that the name is probably just the short form of Nicholas, applied to   
   the devil for some obscure reason. In this line I've seen Niccolo   
   Machiavelli, author of _The Prince_, suggested as the source of the   
   eponym, presumably from the amorality or 'the end justifies the   
   means' attitude of his treatise. The _OED_'s earliest citations are   
   from the mid-XVII century.   
      
   --   
   Odysseus   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)