nom de guerre
3
9.9
- noun
- /nɒm də ɡɛr/
:
seudónimo
- Israel has declassified an interview with a military commando about the 1988 assassination of Khalil al-Wazir, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Jihad.
We knew that there was a very bad guy out there who went by the nom de guerre Mukhtar, right?
- We knew that there was a very bad guy out there who went by the nom de guerre Mukhtar, right?
Examples
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Many defense contractors use a nom de guerre for security reasons.
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Follow @ourhonordefend. Vico is the nom de guerre of the founder and current website chair of Our Honor Defend.
Blog text (8) -
Or shall I address you by your nom de guerre...
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It's sort of a nom de guerre.
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We knew that there was a very bad guy out there who went by the nom de guerre Mukhtar, right?
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On the Steering Committee, his nom de guerre was merely "Gorvitz."
Fiction book (1991) -
"The Marines decided I needed a nom de guerre, something strong, akin to 'Lawrence of Arabia.'
Academic text (2010) -
Almost all the members of these groups used noms de guerre, which amounts to permanently incarnating a theatrical character and, above all, protecting their identities amid conditions of clandestine political life.
Academic text (2014) -
The latest gallows gossip from Pyongyang recounts the execution of fifty-something Kim Chol, the nom de guerre of a deputy defense minister.
Blog text (26) -
But all my captors' names were fake, as each adopted a nom de guerre in my presence.
Synonyms
64
7.0
A name a person uses instead of their real name to hide identity
32
7.7
A name a writer or singer uses instead of their real name
9
3.9
A made-up name someone uses to hide who they are
3
8.2
A name an author uses instead of their real name
A name someone makes up and uses to hide who they are
A name someone uses online instead of their real name
How Secret
Surface Forms
Morphology
nom + de + guerre
The phrase is a French loan that literally reads as 'name of war' (nom = name, de = of, guerre = war), but its idiomatic English sense — a pseudonym or assumed name used to conceal identity or for a particular role — does not follow directly from that literal composition. Because the meaning is a language-specific, historical/figurative extension rather than a straightforward combination of constituent meanings in standard English patterns, a B1 learner who only knows the parts would not reliably infer the correct sense.
Etymology
Nom de guerre comes from French and literally means a nom ('name') for guerre ('war'), because fighters and revolutionaries often used a different name in battle to hide who they really were. So, nom de guerre now means a made-up or secret name someone uses to protect their identity.