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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
nickname
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
earn
▪ This powerful gift was gladly received and subsequently wielded effectively in many battles, earning Sigmar his nickname of Heldenhammer.
▪ Their flocks numbered in the thousands, earning them the nickname of migrating millionaires'.
▪ Bonefish's real name was Hector, but he had earned his nickname because of his uncanny ability to find the elusive fish.
▪ Stephen even earned the nickname Hawkeye.
give
▪ But my classmates gave me the nickname Einstein, so presumably they saw signs of something better.
▪ His early writing defended Joaquin Murieta, and so he was given the nickname.
▪ It was no doubt the carriers rather than the carried who gave the Tourmalet its nickname.
▪ Mike had been given a nickname by the troops: did I know this?
▪ The provost of Glasgow gave her a nickname.
know
▪ The Glasgow children in their classrooms would come to know these nicknames.
▪ But at least that one was known by a nickname.
use
▪ Sometimes people prefer to use an Internet nickname or handle, which can be anything you like.
▪ The sensational book included the revelations that Charles and Camilla used the nicknames Fred and Gladys and regularly communicated.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ At school, her nickname was Carrots because of her red hair.
▪ His black cloak earned him the nickname ''Dracula''.
▪ His fondness for rings had already earned him the nickname Ringo.
▪ Johnson earned the nickname "Magic" while still in high school.
▪ She got the nickname "Sis" because her brother couldn't pronounce her name when they were kids.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A nickname can mark just one incident in the life of the person concerned.
▪ After his exploits the Northerns side adopted the nickname.
▪ But my classmates gave me the nickname Einstein, so presumably they saw signs of something better.
▪ Many of these men became local characters, if only remembered for their nicknames and their prowess in drinking.
▪ My father, on the other hand, could not be so easily summed up in a single paternal nickname.
▪ Symphony No. 88 has always been a favourite and rightly so, as well as the Oxford, helped by its nickname.
▪ The nickname was a contemporary one, a means of distinguishing this Charles from other Carolingians with the same name.
▪ Torme never objected to the velvet part of the nickname.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
nickname

nickname \nick"name`\, n. [OE. ekename surname, hence, a nickname, an ekename being understood as a nekename, influenced also by E. nick, v. See Eke, and Name.] A name given in affectionate familiarity, sportive familiarity, contempt, or derision; a familiar or an opprobrious appellation; as, Nicholas's nickname is Nick.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
nickname

mid-15c., misdivision of ekename (c.1300), an eke name, literally "an additional name," from Old English eaca "an increase," related to eacian "to increase" (cognate with Old Norse auknafn, Swedish öknamn, Danish ögenavn; see eke; also see N). As a verb from 1530s. Related: Nicknamed; nicknaming.

Wiktionary
nickname

n. 1 A familiar, invented given name for a person or thing used instead of the actual name of the person or thing. 2 A kind of byname that describes a person by a characteristic of that person. vb. (context transitive English) To give a '''nickname''' to (a person or thing).

WordNet
nickname
  1. n. 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"; "Henry's nickname was Slim" [syn: moniker, cognomen, sobriquet, soubriquet]

  2. a descriptive name for a place or thing; "the nickname for the U.S. Constitution is `Old Ironsides'"

  3. v. give a nickname to [syn: dub]

Wikipedia
Nickname

A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place, or thing, for affection or ridicule.

The term hypocoristic is used to refer to a nickname of affection between those in love or with a close emotional bond, compared with a term of endearment. The term diminutive name refers to nicknames that convey smallness, hence something regarded with affection or familiarity (e.g., referring to children), or contempt.

The distinction between the two is often blurred. It is a form of endearment and amusement. As a concept, it is distinct from both pseudonym and stage name, and also from a title (for example, City of Fountains), although there may be overlap in these concepts.

A moniker also means a nickname or personal name. The word often distinguishes personal names from nicknames that became proper names out of former nicknames. English examples are Bob and Rob, nickname variants for Robert.

A nickname is often considered desirable, symbolising a form of acceptance, but can sometimes be a form of ridicule.

Usage examples of "nickname".

In one instance a young man had slept so close to his camp-fire that the hair from one side of his head was singed completely away, giving him an appearance so strange that he was promptly given a nickname of twenty or more consonant sounds, which, translated, meant: The Man Who is Half Old Because He Is Half Bald--an appellation acutely resented by the young person concerned, who was rather vain and something of a favourite among the girls.

General Amit could remember the conversation clearly, the taut, angry face of the Russian-born fighter, nicknamed Issar the Terrible.

Martinez had earned his nickname for his zeal in roasting heretics at the auto defe, as the public spectacles of punishment were called.

Animal Farm, borrowing the most popular of the derisory nicknames it had accumulated during the surveillance.

It took me several moments to take in the significance of this droll remark: that I was entering a new community made up of people with diabetes, that we were all in this together, and that there was even a clever nickname attached to the membership.

You were baptized Ursula, but called Tulla from the start, a nickname probably derived from Thula the Koshnavian water nymph, who lived in Osterwick Lake and was written in various ways: Duller, Tolle, Tullatsch, Thula or Dul, Tul, Thul.

The genetic profile of the individual you nicknamed Brown Fleece contains both the intron suite and the mutant exon typical of demiclones.

Chelts as lineally descended from the Tartar race, they have very facetiously nicknamed muriatic acid.

Mr Fegs, was even better, for he was so good-tempered, and kindly, and complying, that the very callants at the grammar school had nicknamed him Barley-sugar Pate.

Professor, if you were maybe into nicknames, could Goldilocks have been Rogachev--a red-haired sort of fellow?

His name was Antonio Dolfin, and he had been nicknamed Bucentoro, in consequence of his air of grandeur and the elegance of his toilet.

I found Nina with her sister, a woman of thirty-six or thereabouts, who was married to an Italian dancer, nicknamed Schizza, because he had a flatter nose than any Tartar.

Only Vernon Knecht and some other friends called me Jigaboo as a nickname to remind me of my victory.

What the men knew would happen, did: Lares Taborn, taking exception to the vulgar nickname, roared and charged like an enraged bull.

The nickname stood for narcolepsy rather than narcotics and arose from an incident during their senior year when Bertie, a second-string tight end, had nodded off during the Class 3A football playoff between Cedar Dell and Bowie High.