Literary notes about Nippy (AI summary)
In literature, the word "nippy" conveys both a literal sense of briskness—often describing chilly weather—and a figurative sense of liveliness or agility in characters. Writers evoke images of biting, clear air in phrases like "a little nippy" morning or when the wind “blows right nippy” ([1], [2], [3]), creating a vivid atmosphere of crispness. At the same time, "nippy" is used to characterize personalities or movements as quick and sprightly, as when someone is compared to “a cat” in both speed and attitude, or when a character’s gait is noted as distinctly nimble ([4], [5], [6]). It even appears as a term of endearment or identification in nicknames, further emphasizing a spirited, energetic quality ([7], [8]).
- The air will be a little nippy when we get up five or six thousand feet.”
— from Air Monster by Green, Edwin, active 1880-1932 - “Even in June these desert nights are nippy.”
— from The Phantom Town Mystery by Carol Norton - "In late fall like this the wind comes swooping down out of the north and blows right nippy."
— from Great Jehoshaphat and Gully Dirt! by Jewell Ellen Smith - He was a rosy-faced little fellow, as nippy as a cat in spite of his seventy years, and as cheerful as a sparrow.
— from The Night Club by Herbert George Jenkins - He directed the men to help him onto his feet and soon came back with his old-fashioned nippy gait.
— from Personal Recollections of the War of 1861As Private, Sergeant and Lieutenant in the Sixty-First Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry by Charles A. Fuller - 'You're so nippy at it,' John said; 'couldn't you do it very slowly once?'
— from Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie - He saw at once Nippy’s good points—the beautiful brightness of his eyes, the fine spots upon his back, the superiority of his intellect.
— from The Bellman Book of Fiction, 1906-1919 - Little "Nippy," my beloved fox terrier, and constant companion, rushed into the laboratory and ran up to me.
— from The Bell Tone by Edmund Harry Leftwich
