Firewater Friday - What the dickens?

A Gimlet . . . or other such cocktail. . .  if you drink too many your headhurts like the dickens.

What the devil is a Dickens?? 

I thought it had something to do with thefamous author.  I just didn’t know whatthe relation was.  You might be surprisedthat the phrase has nothing to do with Charles Dickens, as I assumed itdid.  And, since there isn’t anycorrelation that explains that!

But that doesn’t clarify what the dickensthe dickens is.  Way back in the day whenknights were bold and maidens were fair and all that rot, dickens was a euphemismfor the devil.  It started out as devilkinsand was eventually shortened to dickens. 

Along the same vein, dickens is very muchlike deuce . . . as in What the deuce?!  . . . deuce is another old English name for the Devil.

So, there you have it . . .