Sobriquet

By Deane Barker • • tags: definition •

Definition: a nickname; usually affectionate

Weirdly, the origin is unknown. It’s clearly French, but taken literally, it means “a tap (or tuck) under the chin.” No sources agreed on how we got from that to a synonym for “nickname.” It appeared in English in the 1600s.

Why I Looked It Up

From Kingmakers:

Nicknames are subsurface signatures, like watermarks. Wilson’s was the clipped and no-nonsense “A.T.,” while Sir Percy became “Kokus,” the local pronunciation of “Cox.” Writing home from Baghdad in 1917, Gertrude (Bell) took amused note of these sobriquets…

Links from this – Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East April 21, 2023
I eventually abandoned this book, but I read quite a bit of it. What I came to appreciate is that history of the Middle East and history of the British Empire are wildly intertwined. The British were all over that region, and when they left, they made some attempts to split it up, but then left...