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Added 9 October 2026

nickname

/ˈnɪkneɪm/ noun

In Latin: agnomen, agnomentum Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about nickname at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person's given name).
Joe's mother would not use his nickname and always called him Joseph
A descriptive name for a place or thing.
the nickname for the U.S. Constitution is `Old Ironsides'

verb

Give a nickname to.

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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