"niblick" - Word of the Day from the OED

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niblick, n.

DRAFT REVISION Dec. 2009

Golf. Chiefly hist.

Brit. /nblk/, U.S. /nblk/  Forms: 18- niblick; Sc. 18- niblick, 19- neeblack, 19- niblock. [Origin uncertain; perhaps (as suggested by Sc. National Dict. s.v.) a diminutive formation < NIB n.¹, with reference to the club's hooked appearance (compare NIBBIE n.).
  For an alternative explanation of the term compare the following:
  1975 D. LANGDON How to talk Golf 58 Niblick, old fashioned term for a No. 9 iron. Said to be a corruption of Scottish ‘neb laigh’, a broken nose, referring to the short club-face.] 

    An iron (formerly wooden) golf club, originally one with a relatively short face and subsequently applied to most lofted irons with a heavy head, used esp. for playing out of bunkers and rough ground. (Equivalent to a modern number 8 iron, 9 iron, or wedge.) See also MASHIE-NIBLICK n.

1857 H. B. FARNIE Golfer's Man. iii. 19 It is called a Niblick; has a tough yet effective driving shaft ; and an exceedingly small head well-spooned back. 1862 Rambling Remarks Golf 18 The faces..of the spoons, sand-iron, and niblick are hollowed or ‘spooned’. 1886 H. G. HUTCHINSON Hints on Golf xiii. 33 In the typical niblick shot the ball lies in a heel-mark or other cup in the sand, with the face of the bunker in front. 1894 W. BLACK Highland Cousins I. 35, I smashed my iron niblick clean in two. 1909 Bystander 13 Oct. 90/2 Herd..saved an apparently lost hole by a most masterly niblick pitch. 1955 R. BROWNING Hist. Golf 145 Even the niblicks were originally wooden clubs: the first iron-headed niblicks were excessively short in the blade. 1988 J. CARTWRIGHT Interior viii. 92 The pock-marked fairway where once mashies and niblicks had swished.

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