sb. See also SOUBRIQUET. [F., of uncertain origin.] An epithet, a nickname.
1646. Buck, Rich. III., I. 4. It is controverted amongst the Antiquaries and Heralds, which Earle of Anjou first bare the Sirname and Sobriquet of Plantagenest, or Plantagenet.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., III. xii. 30. This name was one of the Sobriquets, or penitential nick-names.
1757. Stukeley, Acc. Rich. of Cirencester, 8. Most of the names then were what we call sobriquets, travelling names,… what we call nick-names.
1807. G. Chalmers, Caledonia, I. II. vi. 298. The Chronicle … gives him the sobriquet of Annuine.
1860. Adler, Prov. Poet., xvi. 364. In his verses he never designated her but by a species of poetic sobriquet.
1875. W. M‘Ilwraith, Guide to Wigtownshire, 57. Because of this reprehensible state of the town, Whithorn got a not very complimentary sobriquel.
Hence Sobriquet v. trans., to nickname. Also Sobriquetical a., of or pertaining to sobriquets.
1842. Tait’s Mag., IX. 683/1. He has been sobriquetted by that ‘pestilent mad wag,’ Tom Moore, as the Rev. Murtagh O’Mulligan.
1875. M. A. Lower, Eng. Surnames (ed. 4), II. 23. Surnames, geographical, topographical,… sobriquetical,… and historical.
