nickname

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈnɪkneɪm/^[1]

Etymology

From Middle English neke name (mid-15th century), a misdivision of an ekename as a nekename,^[2][3][4][5] from ekename (c. 1300), literally “additional name”.^[2][3] That is Middle English eke (“addition, increase”) + name;^[3][4][6] eke is inherited from Old English ēaca (“an increase”), related to ēacian “to increase”.^[3][2][6] Etymonline gives the cognate Old Norse auknafn.^[2] The same misdivision of the article produced newt.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A name added to or used instead of the proper name of a person or place, usually given in ridicule or fun.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

The noun came to cover familiar forms of first names as well (1605).^[7] The verb first meant “to call by a wrong name, to misname” (1536) before it took the sense “to give a nickname to”;^[7][3][4] the OED and Barnhart date that sense to 1567–69, Etymonline to the 1530s.^[7][3][2]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – ekename.^[2]
• c. 1440 – neke name, an added or substitute name.^[7][3] Random House dates it 1400–50, Etymonline to the mid-15th century.^[5][2]
• 1536 – verb, “to misname”.^[7][3][4]
• 1567–69 – verb, “to give a nickname to”.^[7][3]
• 1605 – a familiar form of a first name.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A descriptive name added to or used instead of the real name of a person, place or thing.
2. A familiar or shortened form of a proper name, such as Jim for James.

Verb

1. To give a nickname to.
2. To call by a wrong name; to misname.

Word family

• nicknamer

Related words

• eke
• name
• newt

References

1. [1] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. [1] [2] [3] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
6. [1] [2] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press