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[nerdfury.livejournal.com]

Great Caesar's ghost, is it Thursday already?

Today's fabulous word is:

Hypocorism [hy-pok-er-riz-uhm, hi-]
noun


Definition
1.     a pet name.
2.     the practice of using a pet name.
3.     the use of forms of speech imitative of baby talk, esp. by an adult.


Etymology
From Latin hypocorisma, from Greek hupokorisma, from hupokorizesthai, hypo-, beneath, secretly; korizesthai, to caress.


Usage
I was always jealous of all the people I knew with great nicknames, and always wanted a hypocorism of my own. Over there was Weeksey, and there's Gus, and there you can see Frankie, Kel, Kyles, Blackbeard and Boss - you can't do much with a name like mine, though, so the best I ever got was 'Oi, dickhead!'

D:

Comments

[mossygirl.livejournal.com]

Great word. When I first read the definition, I thought for a second that "hypocorism" was used as a pet name, like one might use "honey," which brought to my mind some odd scenes :D 0.3 seconds later, I realized it wasn't, but I still like the idea -- it would make a good English nerd term of endearment, if you ask me.

[nerdfury.livejournal.com]

I suppose if you really wanted to be word-nerdy, you could give someone 'hypocorism' as a nickname. :D