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monkiker
Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 12:22 am
by Palewriter
moniker (n)
A nickname or assumed name.
The etymology of this word is curious. Supposedly from
Shelta, a kind of
patois once found among Irish and English itinerants, which was based on the reversal of consonants in Gaelic words.
And the first Agoran who makes a "gimme shelta" comment will be awarded the PW 2006 Wall of Shame Award.
-- PW
Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 12:48 am
by skinem
Come on people now, we don't want any war, children, do we?
I'll have to do some digging on Shelta---haven't heard of it before.
We do have some interesting monikers on Agora, don't we?
I'll just fade away now...
Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:46 am
by Bailey
Well, whattya know
Shel·ta (shlt)
n.
A secret jargon used by traditionally itinerant people in Great Britain and Ireland, based on systematic inversion or alteration of the initial consonants of Gaelic words. Also called Cant, Gammon.
[From Shelta Sheldr, perhaps alteration of Irish Gaelic béarla, language, English, from Old Irish bélrae, language, from bél, mouth.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved
mark shelta-is-also-a-company-in-Australia Bailey
They make shelters umbrellas and the like, but since it's pronounced shelta there anyway....
Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:51 pm
by gailr
Etymonline says:
1849, said to be originally a hobo term (but attested in London underclass from 1851), of uncertain origin; perhaps from monk (monks and nuns take new names with their vows, and early 19c. British tramps referred to themselves as "in the monkery").
Get thee to a monkery doesn't have quite the same sting, although it might fit PW's forbidden pun. Thus, give a guy a new identity and enough
rope and it will become a habit?
-gailr
who thinks there might be a "stole" joke in there someplace, but isn't coming up with anything...
Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 5:58 pm
by Bailey
Wait! is this Moniker or Monkiker? Somehow I doubt if it has anything to do with monks here.
However,I'm NOT an RC but I thought Priests wore stoles not nuns or Monks. But perhaps they wear them to bed in their unheated cells.
mark men-in-skirts Bailey
Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:10 pm
by skinem
Wait! is this Moniker or Monkiker? Somehow I doubt if it has anything to do with monks here.
I thought this thread was about mongrel monkeys...