Origin and history of Nicholas

"uneducated, non-professional; non-clerical," early 14c., from Old French lai "secular, not of the clergy" (12c., Modern French laïque), from Late Latin laicus, from Greek laikos "of the people," from laos "(the common) folk, the people, the crowd; the military; a tribe," in the New Testament especially "the Jewish people," also "the laity," a word of unknown origin. Beekes writes that it is "most often connected with" Hittite lahh- "campaign" and Old Irish laech "warrior," but that the form "is rather Pre-Greek, and has a Pre-Greek suffix -it(o)-. In Middle English, contrasted with learned, a sense revived 1810 in contrast to expert. Laic is a more modern borrowing directly from Late Latin.

"notch, groove, slit," mid-15c., nik, nyke, a word of unknown origin, possibly from a variant of Old French niche (see niche).

Nick of time is attested by 1640s (nick of opportunity is 1610s), possibly from an old custom of recording time as it passed by making notches on a tally stick, though nick in the general sense of "critical moment" is older (1570s, Hanmer, who adds "as commonly we say") than the phrase. Nick (n.) specifically as "notch of a tally" is attested from late 15c.

Chapman’s “Bussy D’Ambois” (1603) seems to suggest a clockwork image.

There is a deep nick in time’s restless wheel

For each man’s good, when which nick comes it strikes;

… So no man riseth by his real merit,

But when it cries clink in his raiser’s spirit.