Entry: cognomen (n.)
In context: "Sober, she'd call him Bimmy or Bim because that's what she heard his little friends call him. She didn't know the neighborhood cognomen came from an acronym for 'Big Indestructible Moron.'"
Definition:
In Latin use: (a) The third name, family name, or surname of a Roman citizen, as Marcus Tullius Cicero, Caius Julius Cæsar; (b) an additional name or epithet bestowed on individuals, as Africanus, Cunctator (in later Latin called agnomen).
but more accurately here:
Hence, in English use: a distinguishing name or epithet given to a person or assumed by himself; a nickname.
Other:
SNOOT score: 2
Page: 448
Source: Oxford English Dictionary
Definitive Jest is a vocabulary-building and SNOOT-approved word-of-the-day blog centered around David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.
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