sobriquet (n.): an assumed name; a fanciful epithet or appellation; a nickname

“Sobriquet” is a fancy-pants word for an appellation used interchangeably with a real name, one that requires no explanation. Oftentimes, a sobriquet is more familiar than a real name — famous examples include Genghis Khan (real name Temüjin, which sounds less impressive being thundered across the steppes) and Caligula (whose real name was Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Finkelstein). In certain cases, a sobriquet is created to refer to an object which has no name — the case in particular I’m thinking of is Stradivarius instruments, which are given sobriquets related to their provenance or, occasionally, distinctive aspects of their appearance.

Why am I mentioning this now? Well, it was just revealed that, this past holiday season, world-renowned violin virtuoso David Garrett slipped and fell down the stairs, landing on his violin case and smashing the shit out of his Stradivarius, whose sobriquet is San Lorenzo. The claim is that the repair bill will cost almost $120,000, which is chump change considering that violin is probably worth a cool $3 million, but the reality is that that violin is fucked, to hell, forever. Oops.