If you were to look at the
Wikipedia article on actor Sam Neill, you might spot a footnote citing
a thread in our forum. We have apparently become a repository of knowledge, to be relied on by encyclopedists!
It seems Neill's original name was Nigel. Think of that - Nigel Neill. What
could his parents have been thinking of? Anyhow, one of the reasons he has given for adopting the name Sam was that he was picked on at school because of being called Nigel. The forum topic cited was one started by Colhad, who suggested we recognise the words
neville and
nigel, which he had heard used as insults. I agreed with him that the words were used in that way, especially
nigel, defined by a slang dictionary as meaning a friendless male.
Although I was able to quote a few examples of
nigel being used as a derogatory term, I didn't feel it was widespread enough for us to accept the word for Chi. Maybe I should rethink that, although our forum seems to be the main evidence the Wikipedia article is relying on for the claim that the word was "commonly used to refer to a sad loner."
