-ONYM

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language | 1998 | 700+ words | Copyright

-ONYM. [Through LATIN from GREEK ónuma/ónoma name]. A word base or combining form that stands either for a WORD (as in SYNONYM) or a NAME (as in pseudonym). Words containing -onym have two kinds of adjective: with -ous, as in synonymous (having the nature or quality of a synonym: synonymous words) or with -ic, as in synonymic (concerning synonyms: synonymic relationships). The form -onymy indicates type, as with synonymy (the type of sense relation in which words have the same or similar meaning) and eponymy (the category of word-formation that concerns words derived from people's names). Because -onym begins with o (the commonest Greek THEMATIC VOWEL, as in biography), the base form is sometimes taken to be -nym, an assumption reinforced by the initial n of the equivalent terms nomen in Latin and name in English. As a result, some recent technical terms have been formed on -nym: for example, characternym and paranym. See ACRONYM, ANTONYM, EPONYM, HETERONYM, HOMONYM, HYPONYM, RETRONYM.

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TOM McARTHUR. "-ONYM." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

TOM McARTHUR. "-ONYM." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-ONYM.html

TOM McARTHUR. "-ONYM." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-ONYM.html

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