the.com/nickname
The name your friends chose, which is usually truer than the one your parents picked.
means An informal, often affectionate alternative name given to a person instead of their given name.
from Originally an 'ekename' — Old English 'eke' meaning 'also' or 'additional,' plus 'name,' so literally an 'also-name.' Through a process called rebracketing, 'an ekename' got misheard and resplit as 'a nekename' — the same slip that turned 'a napron' into 'an apron.' The n jumped across the word boundary, and English never gave it back.
- etymology twist
- from an eke name, meaning also name
- misdivision origin
- an ekename became a nickname by accident
- power move
- used by dictators and toddlers alike
- stickiness
- often outlives the reason it started