Information about Onym

Words in English with the suffix "-onym" refer to classes of words with a particular property. Most of them are classical compounds. For example an acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of other words.

In some words, the -onym form has been modified by replacing (or dropping) the "o." In the examples ananym and metanym, the correct forms (anonym and metonym) were pre-occupied by other meanings. Other, late 20th century examples, such as hypernym and characternym, are typically incorrectly formed neologisms for which there are more traditional words formed in -onym (hyperonym and charactonym).

The English suffix "-onym" is from the Greek suffix -ωνυμος, which is the form taken by Greek ονομα = "name" when it is the end component of a bahuvrihi compound, but in English its use extended to tatpurusa compounds.

According to a 1988 study^[1] of words ending in -onym:

There are four discernible classes of -onym words: (1) historic, classic, or, for want of better terms, naturally occurring or common words; (2) scientific terminology, particularly occurring in linguistics, onomastics, etc.; (3) language games; and (4) nonce words.

Older terms are known to gain new, sometimes contradictory, meanings (e.g., eponym and cryptonym). In many cases, two or more words describe the same phenomenon, but no precedence is discernable (e.g., necronym and penthonym). New words are sometimes created, unnecessarily, the meaning of which duplicate existing terms. Occasionally, new words are formed with little regard to historical principles.

A noteworthy phenomenon (especially prevalent since the 1960s) is the somewhat free and uninhibited creation of new words ending in -onym.

Words that end in -onym

An incomplete list of words ending in -onym, including selected definitions

• acronym: a word formed from the initials of one or more words that is pronounceable like a normal word, such as NATO, sometimes in distinction to initialism
• allonym: an author's name of another person's, often a well-known person's name
• anacronym: an acronym that is so well established that its origin as an abbreviation is no longer widely known (a portmanteau of anachronism + acronym), for example scuba and laser.
• ananym: a name written backward and used as a pseudonym
• anonym: something created anonymously, or its creator; an unknown author; a pseudonym
• anepronym: a portmanteau of anacronym and eponym, a word that becomes so well established that it is used to define other objects that share its own definition (eg. aspirin)
• anthroponym: a human name
• antonym: a word with the exact opposite meaning of another word; an antithesis: "high" and "low" are antonyms (compare with "synonym")
• apronym: a word, which as an acronym or backronym, has a meaning related to the meaning of the words constituting the acronym or backronym.
• aptronym: a name appropriate to its owner's occupation or physical properties, such as "Goldsmith" or "Longman" (compare with "charactonym") — coined by Franklin P. Adams
• autonym: Botanical nomenclature for an automatically created name
• backronym: an ordinary word understood as an amusing or ironic acronym (a portmanteau of back + acronym), such as Fiat understood as "Fix It Again Tomorrow"
• basionym: the first name published for a biological taxon (species, genus, etc.), which remains the defining name for the taxon even when the taxon has been transferred to a new name
• charactonym: a name of a fictional character reflected in his personality traits, such as Shakespeare's Pistol or Bottom (compare with "aptronym")
• consonym: a word that has the same consonants as another word, in the same order, ignoring all vowels: a language game — coined circa 1979 by Gary Pisher; specifically a: originally, such a word constructed phonetically (as exam, with consonant pattern /gzm/ = eczema and gizmo). Revised rules by Philip M. Cohen always consider /w/ and /y/ consonants. b: such a word constructed alphabetically (as thence, with consonant pattern "thnc" = ethnic), sometimes distinguished as strict consonym, where "y" is always a consonant, and permissive consonym, where "y" is always a vowel.
• contronym or antagonym: a word that may have opposite meanings in different contexts, such as cleave meaning "stick together" or "split apart"
• cryptonym: a code name; a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word
• demonym: a name of people that refers to the place they come from, such as the "Assyrian", or the "Briton". A type of taxonym
• endonym A self-assigned name by locals of a place. Also known as an autonym (not to be confused with the autonym in botany).
• eponym: a botanical, zoological, artwork, or place name that derives from a real or legendary person; a name for a real or hypothetical person from whom a botanical, geographical, artwork or zoological name is derived; a person after whom a medical condition is named, or the condition so named. A type of taxonym.
• ethnonym: a name of an ethnic group. A type of taxonym.
• exonym: a name used by one group of people for another group, but who call themselves by a different name, such as "Germans" for "Deutsche"; a place name used by one group that differs from the name used by the people who live there, such as "Cologne" for "Köln"
• geonym: a name of a geographic feature
• heteronym: a word that is spelled in the same way as another but that has a different sound and meaning, for example "bow" as in "bow of a ship" or "bow and arrow" (compare "homonym")
• holonym: a word for the whole of which other words are part, in the way house contains roof, door and window; or car contains steering-wheel and engine (compare "meronym")
• homonym: a word that is pronounced and/or spelled the same way as another, but has a different meaning, such as bat as in "fruit bat" or "bat and ball" (compare "heteronym," "isonym")
• hydronym: a name of a body of water
• hyperonym or hypernym: a generic word that stands for a class or group of equally-ranked items, such as "tree" for "beech" or "elm," or "house" for "chalet" or "bungalow." A hyperonym is said to be "superordinate" to a hyponym.
• hyponym: an item that belongs to and is equally-ranked in a generic class or group, for example "lily" or "violet" in the class of "flowers"; or "limousine" or "hatchback" in the class of "automobiles." A hyponym is said to be "subordinate" to a hyperonym.
• meronym: a word that names a part that belongs to and is therefore subordinate to a larger entity; a part-whole relationship, such as "door" or "window" in "house", or "engine" or "steering-wheel" in "car" (compare "holonym")
• metonym: a word that substitutes a part for the whole it is associated with, for example "crown" for "monarch"; metonymy is the figure of speech incorporating a metonym
• necronym: a reference to or name of a person who has died.
• oronym: (1) a name of a mountain (2) a neologism for homophonic words or phrases.
• paronym: a word that is related to another word and derives from the same root; a cognate word, such as dubious and doubtful
• patronym or patronymic; a name adopted from the father's or ancestor's name, for example "Johnson" from "John," "MacDonald" from "Donald," "O'Brien" from "Brien," or "Ivanovich" from "Ivan"
• phytonym: a plant name
• pseudonym: a false and fictitious name, especially one adopted by an author; a pen name
• retronym: a compound or modified noun that replaces an original simple noun, for example "analog watch" now means what "watch" used to mean before the invention of the digital watch; and motorcycles became "solo motorcycles" when others were built with sidecars
• synonym: a word equivalent in meaning or nearly so to another word; a word that may be substituted for another word that has the same or a similar meaning, such as near and close (compare "antonym")
• tautonym: a binomial or scientific name in the taxonomy of living things in which the generic and specific names are the same, such as Gorilla gorilla; a scientific name in which the specific name is repeated, such as Homo sapiens sapiens as distinct from Homo sapiens neanderthalensis; a noun component that is repeated, such as aye-aye or tom-tom; a personal name where both forename and surname are identical, such as Francis Francis
• taxonym: a name used for classification or identification purposes, usually signifying a relationship to something. Taxonyms include binomens, names of clades or taxons, demonyms, ethnonyms, and eponyms. Examples include canine, hominid, and Dryad.
• theonym: a name of a god. The names societies give their gods at times is useful in understanding the origin of their language as well as their view of a particular deity. Analysis of theonyms has been useful in understanding the connections of Indo-European languages, and possibly their religions, in particular. In Abrahamic faiths the origin and meaning of the Tetragrammaton is sometimes deemed to have important historical or even metaphysical meaning.
• toponym: a place or geographical name; the name of an area of the body, as distinguished from the name of an organ
• troponym: a verb convoying a meaning which is a particular case of the meaning of another verb. For example, to duel is a troponym of to fight; to write is a troponym of to communicate; etc.

Notes

References / Further Reading

Foreword. Specialized word-books employed as finding aids include A. F. Brown's Normal and Reverse English Word List, in 8 volumes (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1963), Martin Lehnert's Reverse Dictionary of Present-Day English (Leipzig: Verlag Enzyklopädie, 1971), Richard C. Herbst's Herbst's Backword Dictionary for Puzzled People (New York: Alamo Publishing Company, 1979), and -Ologies & -Isms: A Thematic Dictionary, 2nd ed., edited by Laurence Urdang (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1981).

• Scheetz, George H. "Onomasticon I." Word Ways, 10 (August 1977): 165-67. Enlarged as "An Onomastic Onomasticon."
• ———. "An Onomastic Onomasticon." ANS Bulletin, No. 65 (28 October 1981), pp. 4-7. Revised and enlarged as Names' Names: A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon.
• ———. Names' Names: A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon. (“What’s In a Name?” Chapbook Series; 2.) Sioux City, Ia.: Schütz Verlag, August 1988. The first separately published, comprehensive historical overview of words ending in -onym, including an annotated list of 137 such words.