nickname. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

nickname

SYLLABICATION:	nick·name
PRONUNCIATION:	nknm
NOUN:	1. A descriptive name added to or replacing the actual name of a person, place, or thing. 2. A familiar or shortened form of a proper name.
TRANSITIVE VERB:	Inflected forms: nick·named, nick·nam·ing, nick·names 1. To give a nickname to. 2. Archaic To call by an incorrect name; misname.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English neke name, from a neke name, alteration of an eke name : eke, addition (from Old English aca; see aug- in Appendix I) + name, name; see name.
OTHER FORMS:	nicknamer —NOUN


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.