Is The Name "Nickelodeon" Demonic?

According to some, the name "Nickelodeon" is a Latin phrase that means "it don't care about God" if you remove the "n", thus making the phrase: "Nic kelo Deo". This claim is simply bizarre and has many issues with it.

The word "nic" in Latin means nothing, as it is not a Latin word. Some have placed this word into devices such as Google Translate, the only problem is this is this software making a mistake. When a person writes "nic", it just registers it as an actual Latin word, "nil". It assumes the person mistyped and interprets it as an actual word. The same thing happens if you write "ciba" into it. "Ciba" is not a Latin word, but "cibus" meaning "food" is.

For the word, "kelo", again, this is not a Latin word. It just registers it as "curo" meaning "I care". With the "nic" it interprets as "non" it writes "I don't care".

Finally, the person is actually right about "Deo". It is a Latin word that means "God"; however, the case of it would make this not make any sense. "Deo" is in the dative case, not the accusative. In Latin, there are 5 primary cases. The nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, and ablative. What we need to look at today is the Nominative, Accusative, and Dative.

Nominative is the subject of a sentence. Say, "The pig gave an apple to the teacher". The subject is "the pig". The Accusative is "the apple" for the Nominative noun is acting on it. "The teacher" is in the Dative case as the Accusative is going to it. In the sentence, "nic kelo Deo", assuming "nic" and kelo" actually mean "I don't care", which again, it does not, it would have to be in the Accusative case to make any sense. The Nominative would be "I" for that is the subject. "God" would be the accusative for the person is acting on "God". The word "Deo" is in the Dative case, not the accusative (i.e. Deum). Thus, assuming this claim is true, the phrase would be nonsensical.

To make this worse, Nickelodeon actually does have a meaning, just not a Latin one. The name comes from "nickelodeons" which are theaters or jukeboxes where one pays a nickel to listen or watch. This is why we see the word "nickel" in "Nickelodeon".

Works Cited:

Image by Fred Selbert on Flickr

“Nickelodeon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nickelodeon. Accessed 24 Nov. 2023.