Link Centre Dictionary

nickname

nick·name

UK/ˈnɪkneɪm/ US/ˈnɪˌkneɪm/ fairly common
noun (2) verb (1)

noun

1.

a familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person''s given name)

  • “Joe”
  • “;”
  • “s nickname was Slim”
Synonyms
2.

a descriptive name for a place or thing

  • “the nickname for the U.S. Constitution is”
  • “'”

verb

1.

give a nickname to

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English neke name, alteration (due to a rebracketing of an ekename as a nekename) of earlier ekename (“nickname”), from eke (“additional”) + name. Compare Old Norse aukanafn, auknafn, auknefni, Faroese eyknevni, Danish øgenavn, Norwegian Nynorsk aukenamn, Swedish öknamn, and German Low German Ökelname. For other similar cases of incorrect division, see also apron, daffodil, newt, orange, umpire.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.