Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An affectionate or humorous nickname.
  • noun An assumed name.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A nickname; a fanciful appellation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An assumed name; a fanciful epithet or appellation; a nickname.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A familiar name for a person (typically a shortened version of a person’s given name).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person's given name)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French soubriquet, chuck under the chin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French sobriquet ("nickname"), from Middle French soubriquet ("a chuck under the chin").

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Examples

  • Whereas my other contact has focused on the Shan tribes near the Chinese border, the Father of the White Monkey — the sobriquet comes from the nickname he has given his daughter, who often travels with him — works mostly with the Karen and other tribes in eastern Burma abutting Thailand, though the networks he operates have ranged as far as the Indian border.

    Lifting the Bamboo Curtain 2008

  • We all know that the sobriquet is obsolete, but did one expect the Senate Majority Leader ever to say, in effect, that Senators are a collection of potted plants whose participation is unimportant to dealing with an “unprecedented financial crisis”?

    Stromata Blog: 2008

  • We all know that the sobriquet is obsolete, but did one expect the Senate Majority Leader ever to say, in effect, that Senators are a collection of potted plants whose participation is unimportant to dealing with an “unprecedented financial crisis”?

    The World’s Greatest Collection of Potted Plants? 2008

  • Whereas my other contact has focused on the Shan tribes near the Chinese border, the Father of the White Monkey — the sobriquet comes from the nickname he has given his daughter, who often travels with him — works mostly with the Karen and other tribes in eastern Burma abutting Thailand, though the networks he operates have ranged as far as the Indian border.

    Lifting the Bamboo Curtain 2008

  • It was Fuentes who coined the sobriquet "My Queen," Avila Beltrán told authorities after her arrest; the Mexican cop used his proceeds from the drug trade to send his wife on clothing and jewelry shopping sprees in Paris and the United States and to buy her seafront condominiums in Puerto Vallarta and other Pacific Coast resort towns.

    Underworld Queenpin 2007

  • A sobriquet is a descriptive appellation, like Governor Jesse [the Body] Ventura, which geezers will fondly recall followed, by two generations, Marie [the Body] McDonald.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • A sobriquet is a descriptive appellation, like Governor Jesse [the Body] Ventura, which geezers will fondly recall followed, by two generations, Marie [the Body] McDonald.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • A sobriquet is a descriptive appellation, like Governor Jesse [the Body] Ventura, which geezers will fondly recall followed, by two generations, Marie [the Body] McDonald.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • A sobriquet is a descriptive appellation, like Governor Jesse [the Body] Ventura, which geezers will fondly recall followed, by two generations, Marie [the Body] McDonald.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • In a country where the sobriquet is usually the only name by which it is courteous or safe to address a man, and where it is invariably apt, few men are accorded two.

    Laramie Holds the Range 1898

Comments

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  • This word always reminds me of those little charcoal bricks you use to barbecue.

    September 19, 2007

  • me too!

    September 19, 2007

  • Yeah, what are they called...? ;->

    September 19, 2007

  • they're called briquettes! Very close.

    November 7, 2007

  • Joking, rmavis. But thanks. :-)

    November 7, 2007

  • usually soubriquet

    July 20, 2008

  • jmp: On what basis do you say it's "usually soubriquet"?

    Google yields 379,000 hits for "sobriquet" (which Wikipedia says is the correct French spelling), and just under 65,000 hits for "soubriquet".

    Perhaps you are thinking of the word soubrette?

    July 20, 2008

  • It's usually soubriquet in my house!

    July 20, 2008

  • I won't change my old mumpsimus for your new sobriquet!

    July 21, 2008

  • As for the Deerslayer, under the sobriquet of Hawkeye, he made his fame spread far and near, until the crack of his rifle became as terrible to the ears of the Mingos, as the thunders of the Manitou.

    -James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

    August 14, 2009

  • I once knew a soubrette whose sobriquet was mata hari. Or maybe she was a vedette. Either way, that was her etiquette.

    August 14, 2009

  • "Hip-shakin' shoutin' in gold lamé

    That's how he earned his regal sobriquet

    Then he threw it all away

    For a porcelain monkey.

    He threw it away for a porcelain monkey

    Gave it all up for a figurine

    He traded it in for a night in Las Vegas

    And his face on velveteen."

    From "Porcelain Monkey," a song about Elvis Presley, by Warren Zevon.

    March 11, 2010

  • Does monkey rhyme with sobriquet?

    March 11, 2010

  • When you're wearing gold lamé, you can make monkey rhyme with whatever you like.

    March 11, 2010

  • I see.

    I made that rhyme with say, by the way. Wheee! See?

    March 11, 2010

  • Ay, sí. Ah, oui. Monkey.

    March 11, 2010

  • According to the Wordnik charts, jmp is right (except for very recent times). Unless he was referring to charcoal bricks.

    December 13, 2010

  • I feel 'briquettes' makes it taste better.

    September 15, 2023

  • tomAto, tomaaato; sobriquet, soubriquet, both beautiful sounding.

    September 15, 2023