is it called a nickname because of people named nick or because nick named people?
i.e. did nick name people or did people call nick nick?
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29 replies
Well not to ruin a good time in the shower but neither. In middle English an "eke name" meant "another name". Over time it became a neke name, and from there a nickname.
The n from "an" transferring to the other word is always amusing to me and what's more amusing is that it's not the only time this has happened (a napron -> an apron)
an orange
a norange
At one point i thought "enlies" was a word because of how i was hearing the phrase "therein lies the problem." I was hearing it as "there enlies the problem".
Works the other way too. (an otch -> a notch)
I once convinced a co-worker that the opposite was true for napkin, that they were apkins before.
Also told him pockets were pock-ettes and pants used to have giant pocks that hung outside like saddlebags.
That's surprisingly not that far off, modern pockets evolved from bags tied to belts and the word comes from "poke", meaning pouch.
My nuncle has an eke name.
Great question by OP, and a great answer here.
funny that we went full circle with "aka"
A.K.A. is an initialism for "also known as". No relation.
yeah i mean i just thought it was funny that people used
eke namebefore, to mean "another name" and now we useakato mean "also known as"Fair enough.
BDYKWIATTTYRN?
Crazy that I got this without trying.
I thought it was a name somebody nicked (appropriated) and placed on somebody else.
another name... "an other" name
If you want the real answer, from Middle English neke name, alteration (due to a rebracketing of an ekename as a nekename) of earlier ekename (“nickname”), from eke (“additional”) + name.
Robwords (or was it Words Unravelled?) explained that one
History of English podcast, mother of all etymology tangents. Highly recommended.
It was originally “knickerbocker” name but got shortened over time
I’ll take no further questions
It’s just something your father thought up while he was shaving.
Mo-nik-er
Nik-name
Nickname
is moniker called moniker because it's a NIcK name or is nickname named after moniker?
Who's Monica? Is she a friend of Nick?
What if Dick had been a popular name…
67 rule btw
Now it’s at 69.