While researching something unrelated I found this entry on Etymonline:
an idiot sometimes became a nidiot, which, with still-common casual pronunciation, became nidget, which, alas, has not survived.
(emphasis mine)
Is it true that the "nidget" has not survived?
Friends of mine from Dublin and Liverpool (both sadly long dead, so I cannot ask them) used to use the word, I am quite sure, with regularity when discussing the deficiencies of neighbours, relatives, and most often, politicians.
Ngrams shows little usage of the word in the last 200 years, and most hits on Google books go back to the 19th century.
Are there some dialects that still make use of this variant of an idiot, or have I outlived yet another word?
