moniker

What it means

1. A personal name or nickname; an informal label, often drawing attention to a particular attribute.

   The rookie was upset at being called Lemon Drop until she realized that everyone on the team had a silly moniker.

   4 more examples

   Again fairly common, and always amusing, are the monikers drawn from the (imagined) childhood of a particular vagrant.

   2000, Jim Phelan, “Irish Writing in the 1940s”, in David Pierce, editor, Irish Writing in the Twentieth Century: A Reader, page 541

   A gang member may receive a new identity by taking on a nickname, or moniker, which others in the gang world would recognize. Monikers affirm a youth's commitment to gang life and may become their sole identity, the only way they see thselves and the only name they go by.

   2010, Linda S. Miller, Kären M. Hess, Christine M. H. Orthmann, Community Policing: Partnerships for Problem Solving, 6th edition, page 388

   Recently, a class of reactions has gained tremendous attention in the chemistry community under the moniker of "click chemistry," a concept introduced by Kolb and colleagues.

   2010, Neal K. Devaraj, Ralph Weissleder, “30: "Click Chemistry": Applications to Molecular Imaging”, in Ralph Weissleder, Brian D. Ross, Alnawaz Rehemtulla, Sanjiv Sam, editors, Molecular Imaging, Principles and Practice, page 471

   Actually, the various monikers Pilgrims, Puritans, Plymouth Rocks, Red Stockings, Hubs and Hubites were frequently used, informally, for both Boston big league clubs until 1912.

   2012, Richard Worth, Baseball Team Names, unnumbered page

   Synonyms: byname, nickname, pseudonym, sobriquet, street name, to-name, name, nomenclature

2. A person's signature.

   The monikers of both these famously well-endowed movie stars contain enormous sworls (two of them, no less, for Ms West!) that could only signify you-know-what, according to Ms Koren.

   2007, Barry L. Beyerstein, “Chapter 16: Graphology-a total write-off”, in Sergio Della Sala, editor, Tall Tales About the Mind and Brain: Separating Fact from Fiction, page 255

   Synonyms: tag

3. computingAn object (structured item of data) used to associate the name of an object with its location.

   Monikers are often composed from other monikers to allow object hierarchies to be navigated based on a textual description of a path.

   1998, Don Box, Essential COM, page 131

   2 more examples

   The GetObject function can also be used to access objects via monikers. A moniker is itself an object that acts as an intermediary between VBScript and the actual object to be accessed. Monikers are typically used when the objects to be accessed exist in a namespace other than the file system.

   1999, Tim Hill, Windows 2000: Windows Script Host, page 186

   There are different types of monikers, but the one that deals with object instantiation is the class moniker. A class moniker portrays a class factory.

   2011, Thuan L. Thai, Learning DCOM, O'Reilly, page 121

In a sentence

The rookie was upset at being called Lemon Drop until she realized that everyone on the team had a silly moniker.

Where it comes from

1. Sheltamunik
2. Englishmoniker

Unknown; first attested in 1849. Suggested derivations are: * Backslang for ekename (compare nickname); * From Shelta munik, munika; * From monk; * Partridge (A Dictionary of Historical Slang) suggests a corruption of monogram, which is suggestive of the sense signature. * From monarch in the sense 'king or No. 1, and thus with frank egotism, "I, myself".' (The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 281, pg. 349.) Online Etymological Dictionary's entry cites the Saturday Review (London newspaper) of 1857, which noted, "the word has a certain Coptic or Egyptian twang".