high nelly
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From the high riding position and Nelly, an old-fashioned name
Noun
[edit]high nelly (plural high nellies)
- (Ireland, formerly derogatory, now nostalgic) An old-fashioned utility bicycle, especially one with a step-through frame and high handlebars providing an erect riding posture
- 1974 July 17, Derry Power, “Spain before it was packaged”, in The Irish Times[1], Dublin, page 16:
- I don't know what make of bike it was but it was certainly the motor bike version of the High Nelly push bike or the Tin Lizzy car.
- 1988 October 8, Deaglán de Bréadún, “The Saturday Column; Stephen Roche's slow bike from China”, in The Irish Times[2], Dublin, page Weekend 12:
- Chinese bikes are bigger and heavier than Western ones, they carry number plates and resemble the old "High Nellies" that are now such a rare sight on Irish roads.
- 1989, Hugh Fitzgerald Ryan, Reprisal: a novel, Wolfhound Press, →ISBN, page 208:
- there's an old bike out the back of the barracks. You're welcome to it. It's a bit of a high-nelly, and it needs new tyres, but it will get you around.
- 1989 Fall, Aidan Higgins, “Two from Ronda Gorge”, in Four Quarters[3], volume 3 [2nd series], number 2, →ISSN, page 53:
- Now Julia Mahon. with two buckets of pigswill slung over the handlebars of her High Nelly, is off again to talk to her mother in St Michael's cemetery.
- 2014 April 1, “Philo’s old high nelly to be lovingly restored”, in Carlow Nationalist[4], archived from the original on 16 November 2017:
- A HIGH Nellie bike once used by Irish rock icon Phil Lynott is being lovingly restored by a group of Carlovians, who are hoping to auction it to raise funds for a local cancer support group. Philomena Lynott found her much-loved 1930s bicycle rusting away in the garden shed and decided to put it to better use.
- 2014 July 6, Tom Prendeville, “High Nelly bicycles making a comeback on the roads again”, in Sunday Independent:
- Before the age of the motorcar, practically everyone in Ireland owned a High Nelly.