Nicknames from Mental and Moral Characteristics
Abstract
N icknames denoting mental and moral characteristics, both complimentary and uncomplimentary, are numerous, formed not only from adjectives, Doughty and Daft, but also from nouns, Fear, ME fere ‘comrade’, ME fere, OFr f(i)er ‘fierce’, or the noun fear, Rogerus Timor 1200 Cur, Sleeper, abstract terms, Counsell, Wisdom, and compounds, Goodlad, Truelove. Many of them are self-explanatory and a list would be long and tedious. Others, as we have seen, are misleading, as the ME meaning of the word differs from that in use today, 1 whilst many preserve terms now rare or obsolete. Very many, too, have completely disappeared as surnames.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Linguistics and language evolution
Linguistics and Language Studies
Lexicography and Language Studies
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Routledge eBooks
- Pages
- 252–260
- Publication date
- 26 February 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Book chapter