Entry in progress—B.P.
Historical Dictionary of American Slang
nitery n. Journ. a nightclub. Now colloq. or S.E.
1934 Weseen Dict. Amer. Slang 147: Nitery—A night club.
1936 Esquire (Sept.) 159: Some hot nitery (night club).
1954 New Yorker (May 8) 100: A man feels the need to step out into the bright world of the niteries.
1960 Time (Aug. 22) 46: San Francisco’s six banjo bars are respectable, all-beer niteries with red-checked tablecloths.
1966 L.A. Times (Mar. 5) I 18: Youngsters commandeered the Sunset Strip for their rock ‘n’ roll antics, so several nitery operators catering to adults decided to “move out.”
1973 Business Week (Nov. 24) 83: The best niteries in town are small and filled with modern jazz, folk, and rock music.
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Main Entry: nit·ery
Variant(s): also nit·er·ie \ˈnī-tə-rē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural nit·er·ies
Etymology: nite + -ery (as in eatery); niterie from nite + French -erie -ery
Date: circa 1934
: nightclub
(Oxford English Dictionary)
nitery, n.
colloq. (orig. U.S.).
[< NITE n.2 + -ERY suffix. In forms in -erie perhaps after French loans with the same ending; compare BRASSERIE n., CHARCUTERIE n. In forms in night- re-formed after NIGHT n.]
A nightclub.
1934 M. H. WESEEN Dict. Amer. Slang x. 147 Nitery, a night club.
1935 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Nov. 38/1 We’ll never catch a wire in a decent nitery.
1955 J. B. PRIESTLEY & J. HAWKES Journey down Rainbow 129 All darkened niteries and dimmed hot spots.
1978 Washington Post (Nexis) 12 May (Weekend section) 1 You can still find an occasional ‘new wave’ group at Louie’s Rock City and The Atlantis, a new downtown nightery.
2000 W. SHAW Westsiders 198, I arrive, foolishly early, at 9.30 p.m. at the ugly seventies niterie that King has booked.
31 October 1933,
Lou Holtz, who during yesteryear quit grammar school and today is one of the better comedians, gets $1,000 a performance at a N’Yawk nitery while his brother peddles hardware for a living.
23 June 1934, Hammond (IN) Times, pg. 9, col. 5:
The Blackhawk management is of the opinion that Kemp appeals to the younger element of nitery habitues and, as they make up a greater portion of the trade, the oldsters who went for Simons have to suffer deprivation.
New York City • Restaurants/Bars/Coffeehouses/Food Stores • (0) Comments • Thursday, July 16, 2009 • Permalink