This week's theme: a medley of words. agnomen (ag-NO-men) noun, plural agnomina
A nickname. [From Latin ag- (a variant of ad-, used before words beginning with g) + (g)nomen (name).] In ancient Rome, names of people typically had three parts: praenomen (given name), nomen (name of the clan), and cognomen (family name). Example: Gaius Julius Caesar. Sometimes, an additional fourth name, agnomen, was given to honor an achievement. These names were not substitutes for the real name, rather they were used in addition. Also, they were not inherited. Example: Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, given to mark his victories in Africa. An example of a modern agnomen is "Teflon" Reagan. Lion is a popular agnomen. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "[Richard] is imprisoned on his return by the German emperor, and earns the agnomen 'Lion-Hearted' by tearing out the heart of a lion sent to devour him." Paul Beekman Taylor; Sir Orfeo and the Minstrel King; ANQ, American Notes & Queries (St. Louis, Missouri); Winter 2000. Sponsors' messages: Always find the right word with the Visual Thesaurus. Wordsmith readers save 10%. Try it free! http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?code=qt4&ad=aw Perfect your French, German, Spanish or Italian with Champs-Elysees audio magazines on foreign life & culture. http://ads.champs-elysees.com/wsmith3 ............................................................................ One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results. -Milton Friedman, economist, Novel laureate (1912- ) Share the magic of words. Send a gift sub: http://wordsmith.org/awad/gift.html Remove, change, or subscribe address: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/agnomen.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/agnomen.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/agnomen.html This message was sent to "[email protected]".
