[Ads-l] moneker, moniker (and many other spellings)

[Laurence Horn]

> On Sep 30, 2020, at 2:51 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> I have seen a number of "nomicker" in the early 1900s.
> Not clear whether it's a typo or a misunderstanding influenced by "nom de . . .”

Or misunderstanding it as an anti-Irish slur.

Watkins’s AHD Dictionary of Indo-European Roots tracks “moniker” back to a Celtic source (OIr “ainm") and ultimately tp PIE *no-men (along with “name” and Lat. “nomen”) in which case the apparent metathesis in “nomicker” would be on sounder grounds than I’d have guessed.

> 
> ------ Original Message ------
> From: "Stephen Goranson" <goranson at duke.edu>
> To: ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu
> Sent: 9/30/2020 6:44:37 AM
> Subject: moneker, moniker (and many other spellings)
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
>> Subject:      moneker, moniker (and many other spellings)
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> Much info is available in OED, Green's Dictionary o' Slang, Partridge/Beale=
>> 1984 174/2 and scattered articles and usages. I won't attempt a survey.
>> 
>> Liberman's Bibliography lists C. H. Vellacott, "Thieves' Slang," Gentleman'=
>> s Magazine 1896: 349 which offered: "'Moniker,' a common coster word for 'n=
>> ame,' was originally monarch, that is king or No. 1, and thus with frank eg=
>> otism 'I, myself.' The slang use of 'monarco' for 'I' in Italian Gergo supp=
>> orts this apparently far-fetched derivation."
>> 
>> Though others support monarch, I, rather, provisionally accept the "far-fet=
>> ched" characterization. Because these (early) names are polar opposites of =
>> royal Charles, George, James, and Elizabeth.
>> Instead, they are nicknames, additional names, individual and intended as u=
>> nique names. Nicknames, from an eke-name ("an ekename" became "a nickname")=
>> . Hmm. Eke-name , as some have already noted, may seem related to the (freq=
>> uently-used) spelling moneker. Unique name? One (individual) name? My (own,=
>> for my familiars) name?--not just a plain at-birth given name, as some use=
>> it today.
>> 
>> One could cite many examples of monekers. One of the more elaborate lists i=
>> s "'Monekers,' Names by which Noted Criminals are Known in their Profession=
>> al Circles, In Other Words, a Rogues' Directory [etc.], St. Louis Globe-Dem=
>> ocrat (Missouri), March 6, 1882 p. 10 [newspapers.com] lists and describes =
>> 107 (!) such named persons, and often their given name and specialty. E.g.,=
>> "'Tiger Jim,' is Chas. Montgomery, a burglar, who has the name tattoed on =
>> his arm."
>> 
>> Others also use the moneker spelling, such as "A Literary Bohemia", St. Jam=
>> es Magazine [Proquest], April, 1868, 433, and "The Tramp; or Caste in the J=
>> ungle," New Outlook, August 19, 1911, pages 871, 873, 874, 875 ("Susquehana=
>> Red"--again, hardly a royal name-- and so on).
>> 
>> Stephen "moneker-speller' Goranson
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org