-onym

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The suffix –onym, in English, means "word, name," and words ending in –onym refer to a specified kind of name or word, most of which are classical compounds. For example, an acronym is a word formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term (as radar). The use of -onym words provides a means of classifying, often to a fine degree of resolution, sets of nouns with common attributes.

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 –ώνυμον [-ōnymon], neuter of -ώνυμος (-ōnymos), having a specified kind of name, from the Greek ονομα [ónoma], Aeolic Greek ονυμα [ónyma, ónyma], "name." The form -ώνυμος (-ōnymos) is that taken by ονομα (ónoma, "name") when it is the end component of a bahuvrihi compound, but in English its use is 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.

Words that end in -onym

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Notes

References

• 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.

Further reading

• Brown, A. F. (1963). Normal and Reverse English Word List. 1-8. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. 
• Herbst, Richard C. (1979). Herbst's Backword Dictionary for Puzzled People. New York: Alamo Publishing Company. 
• Lehnert, Martin (1971). Reverse Dictionary of Present-Day English. Leipzig: Verlag Enzyklopädie. 
• Laurence Urdang, ed (1981). -Ologies & -Isms: A Thematic Dictionary (2nd ed.). Detroit: Gale Research Company. 

External links

• International Council of Onomastic Sciences

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