Comments on: Dicey

By: karl

karl — Wed, 16 May 2018 09:39:39 +0000

Im unsure of the recent RAF related origin. I had come across an origin story some years ago, but i cannot refind now and I really don’t know it provenance, but its a good tale.

There was a Irish “cartographer” surnamed Dicey. In the 1700’s he decide to capitalise on the similarity of his surname to Cluer Dicey & Co. who were reputable map makers, and the scoundrel Dicey literally made up maps of the then New World and Far East and sold them to merchants, adventurers and explorers. The maps were clearly perilous, and lead to the expression that unreliable maps were “dicey”. By the mid 1800’s this use had widened to mean risky and dangerous generally.

By: Claire

Claire — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:26:00 +0000

I have heard this expression before and how it originated from Dyce. However, Dyce is definitely not known for it’s “clear weather” It is probably one of the widiest runways in Scotland – the wind generally blows from West/east and the runway runs north/south (or the other way around) and that leads to problems with crosswinds. I heard that the expression came from the RAF landing at windy Dyce – not landing there because it was wind elsewhere. Don’t know if it originated from there though.

By: Fred Stokeld

Fred Stokeld — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:17:18 +0000

In 1951, I was on a RAF pilot training course, and one of the flight instructors, a WWII vetran, would always announce a training session by saying, “come on, let’s dice”! It was taken to derive from
“dicing with death” a fate not unfamiliar to those then and now engaged in military flying.

By: Nick Mitchell

Nick Mitchell — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:56:02 +0000

It is indeed to do with rolling dice and not the airfield near Aberdeen (which is spelt Dyce)

By: RICHARD DAVIES

RICHARD DAVIES — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:08:46 +0000

Dicey is definitely RAF slang from the second world war.
My mother served in the WAAF at Hornchurch Aerodrome during the Battle Of Britain, this was one of the premier British aerodromes and close to London. She said that they had a visit from a London Newspaper Journalist who was doing a story about the RAF pilots. When the story appeared in the paper it was about “Our brave lads dicing with death”. Thereafter anything a bit risky was dicey.