sobriquet

English

WOTD – 16 February 2009

Alternative forms

• soubriquet

Etymology

Borrowed from French sobriquet (“nickname”), from Middle French soubriquet (“a chuck under the chin”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsəʊ.bɹɪ.keɪ/
• (US) enPR: ʹsōbrĭkā, ʹsōbrĭkĕt, IPA^(key): /ˈsoʊ.bɹɪ.keɪ/, /ˈsoʊ.bɹɪ.kɛt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  ,

  Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ

Noun

sobriquet (plural sobriquets)

1. A familiar name for a person or thing; a nickname (sometimes assumed by the person, but often given by others), that is descriptive.

   Synonyms: cognomen, moniker, nickname

   “The Bard” is a sobriquet of English playwright William Shakespeare.

   • 1862, A. Banning Norton, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     The sobriquet of Johnny Appleseed attached to him, though his real name was Chapman, in consequence of his being ever engaged in gathering and planting appleseed and cultivating nurseries of apple trees.

   • 1951 November, David R. Webb, “The Drummond 4-4-0 Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 774:

     They turned out to be speedy machines and earned the sobriquet "Greyhounds", giving excellent performances on the Exeter run.

Synonyms

• byname
• to-name

Translations

familiar name for a person or thing

• Bulgarian: прякор (bg) m (prjakor)
• Czech: přezdívka (cs) f
• Dutch: bijnaam (nl)
• Finnish: lempinimi (fi)
• French: sobriquet (fr) m, surnom familier m
• Galician: alcume (gl) m, alcuño m, estripote m, lumiada f, nomeada f
• German: Beiname (de) m, Spitzname (de) m
• Greek: χαϊδευτικό (el) n (chaïdeftikó)
• Ido: surnomacho (io)
• Macedonian: пре́кар m (prékar)
• Polish: przydomek (pl) m, przezwisko (pl) n
• Portuguese: alcunha (pt) f
• Russian: про́звище (ru) n (prózvišče), прозва́ние (ru) n (prozvánije)
• Scottish Gaelic: frith-ainm m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: на́димак m

  Roman: nádimak (sh) m

• Spanish: sobrenombre (es) m

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French soubriquet (“a chuck under the chin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɔ.bʁi.kɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

sobriquet m (plural sobriquets)

1. nickname

Further reading

• “sobriquet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.