Other forms: pseudonyms
A pseudonym is a false name used by a writer. Write under a pseudonym, a well-known pseudonym, adopt a pseudonym.
Writers use one to escape a reputation, to hide a gender, or to publish safely — and the Brontë sisters did the second before anybody did the third. A pen name is the same thing. Note that the Greek means false name, from pseudes plus onoma.
1nounpseudonymA false name used by a writer.
“She writes crime novels under a pseudonym so her colleagues won't know.”
pseudonym is a false name.
Greek pseudonymos is pseudes, false, plus onoma, a name. Anonymous and synonym come from the same name.
Ancient Greek
ψευδώνυμος
French
pseudonyme — pseudonymous
English, today
pseudonym
Built from
a back-formation from pseudonymous, from French pseudonyme (“pseudonymous”), from Ancient Greek ψευδώνυμος, from ψευδής (“false”) and ὄνυμα, a dialectal form of ὄνομα (“name”). by surface analysis, pseudo- + -onym.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA