Etymograph

English

screenname

From screen + name.

A compound of screen + name

Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut off, sever’

…

Old Dutch skirm

Middle Dutch scherm

Anglo-Norman escren ‘firescreen’

Middle English scren

English screen

Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ ‘name’

Proto-Germanic *namô ‘name’

Proto-West Germanic *namō ‘name’

Old English nama ‘name’

Middle English name

English name

Today it means

noun a string of characters used to identify a user of a bulletin board, e-mail etc; a pseudonym used for online communication.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “screenname”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / screenname

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