monikers and mark twain and shelta

[Daniel Cassidy]

> As Mark Twain took his name from the cry of the Mississippi boatmen
> calling out the 'depth' of the river, his pen-surname would surely
> translate into Gaeilge as either Dhá" - "D (buailte) a (fada)" or
> "Beirt"
> This is according to Tomás De Bhaldraithe's English/Irish dictionary of
> 1959
> 

A Chara:

Yes Sam Clemens had two monikers.

Moniker from Irish Shelta: Munik?
See McAllister, Waters, OhAodha, NiShuinnear, OED)

Monicker
Munik  (Irish Traveller Shelta/Cant)
Metathesis of...
M'ainm or Mo ainm
My Name

M'ainm: camouflage suffixation of "ak" for final "m" = M'ain(-m)+(ak) = 
munik. Shelta word for name. 

Or more likely: metathesis of the Irish word AINM

AINM  backslanged to M-AIN + camouflage suffic AK = MAINAK = MUNIK = 
Name in Shelta.

Yer moniker.

I believe there are editions of the OED that tentatively proffer this 
etymology of monicker. See also "jimmy" and "gammy". 


+++

The mythic Mississippi River Boat monte tricksters of the mid-19th century, 
Canada Bill and George DeVol , had a hundred monikers between them.

Canada Bill was the Babe Ruth of broad pitchers (three card monte dealers) 
and DeVol was the shill and roper, as well as a world-class rough and tumble 
fighter and head butt artist., Devol became a wealthy sure-thing gambler, who 
went on to write his memoirs in the early 1880s.  

The Irish words Do-bhuille mean "foul blow"  and can be pronounced "DeVol." 
Sort of a warning label in Gaeilge. Like the secret Gaelic monikers of  the 
famed 1920s grifters Little Chappie Lohr and The Bow Legged Lip Kid. (see Maurer, 
The Big Con). If you spoke irish you knew enough not to play cards with these 
bhoys. Their "minker" monikers shouted "watch out." 

Unlike Mark Twain.

Actually Mark Twain had three monikers if you consider the actual family name 
of Samuel Clemens was most often spelled Clements. 

It is a County Antrim name. There were 23 Clements born in Antrim in 1892! No 
Clemens! I believe his brother retained the "T".

My moniker as a kid was The Gla/m. Because I was always gla/mmin' (gla/m, vt. 
: grab) my kid brudder's dezzert. Monikers are an interesting topic in Irish 
and Irish Amercian demotic culture...

dc