Nickname

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Grammarist

The term nickname is based on a variant of the original term. We will examine the definition of the word nickname, where it came from and some examples of its use in sentences.

A nickname is a substitute for someone or something’s proper name. A nickname may be a shortened form of the proper name, a form of endearment, a humorous sobriquet or a taunt. For instance, for the proper name William, a shortened form of nickname may be Will, a form of endearment may be Billy-Boy, a humorous sobriquet may be Chilly Willy and a taunt may be Bill the Pill. The word nickname is derived from the original term, ekename, which means an additional name. The word became blended  with the indefinite article an, leading to the term nekename. Nickname is a closed compound word, which is a word formed by joining two separate words together without a space or hyphen. Nickname may be used as a noun or a verb, related words are nicknames, nicknamed, nicknaming.

Examples

Alex Bowman, the 24-year-old driver who will start on the pole at the Daytona 500 on Sunday, has already made it clear that he does not like the nickname “Bowman the Showman,” which some stock-car fans have called him since he was a hotshot teenager. (Forbes Magazine)

Finally, after hearing a story about how an adversary described the 55th Wing’s RC-135S Cobra Ball mission in the Pacific as “imperialist war hawks running amok,” he knew he had the wing’s nickname. (The Omaha World-Herald)

Born with the incredibly rare disorder, hypertrichosis, Larry Gomez, of San Bernardino, California, has been nicknamed the “Wolf Man”, thanks to 98% of his body – including his face – being coated by thick, dark hair. (The Sun)