Etymology

nickname

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Today it means: A familiar, invented name for a person or thing used instead of the actual name of the person or thing, often based on some noteworthy characteristic. Full definition →

Middle English neke name
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromneke name
  2. English todaynickname

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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.