Chapter 10:  Exercise #10
C. Bonner-Johnson   5/22/12

Research Project:  There are many -nym/-onym words that describe classes of words with particular semantic properties.  A few were mentioned in this chapter such as synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, and hyponyms.  A synomym - one of two or more words that have the same or similar meaning ( i.e.  big and large ).  An antonym - a pair of words that have opposite meanings ( i.e. stop and go ).  Homonyms are words that have the same pronounciation but have a different spelling and meaning ( i.e. bear and bare ).  Hyponyms are words that have more of a specific meaning than another ( i.e. the relationship between chair and furniture; chair is a hyponym.

What is the etymology of -onym?  The etymology of -onym is Greek.  Polyonymous comes from Greek origin.  Poly means many and the -onymous part derives from the Greek word onoma/onyma meaning name.  In English there are many decendents of onoma such as; anonymous - having no name, pseudonym - false name, and eponym - one who leaves their name ( lends ) to something or a word that comes from someones name. 

What common English word is it related to?  It is related to the word name, because it is derived from onyma. 

How many more -nym words and their meanings can you come up with?
There are numerous -nym words in the English language.  Here are ten -nym words and their meanings obtained from www.fun-with- words.com/nym words.html.

1.  Aptronym - a person's name that matches its owner's occupation or character very well ( either in
     fiction or reality ); artic explorer Will Snow,  hairdresser Dan Druff.

2.  Autoantonym - a word that can take two or more opposite meanings; i.e. fast means "moving
     quickly" or fixed firmly in place".

3.  Autonym - a word that describes itself; i.e. noun is a noun, word is a word.

4.  Bacronym - the reverse of producing an acronym; taking a word that already exists and creating a
     phrase ( usually funny ) using the letters of the words as initials; i.e. Delivery Overnight
     Guaranteed (DOG), Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody (BANANA).

5.  Capitoynm - a word which changes its meaning and pronunciation when capitalized; i.e. polish
     Polish. concord and Concord.

6.  Meronym - a word designates something by the name of something associated with it; i.e. the
     Crown referring to the monarchy, the bottle referring to alcohol.

7.  Metronym -  a name derived from one's mother, or another female ancestor.
     * From Greek metros, which means mother.

8.  Oronym -  a string of words which is homophonic with another string of words; i.e. ice cream
      and I scream, mint spy and mince pie.

9.  Retronym - An adjective-noun pairing generated by a change in the meaning of the base noun,
     usually as a result of technological advance; i.e. watch became pocket watch due to introduction
     of wrist watch, pen became fountain pen due to introduction of  ball-point pen.
     * From Greek retro, which means backward; coined by Frank Mankiewicz.

10.  Tautonym - a word composed of two identical parts; i.e. yo-yo, tutu, bye-bye.


What was the winning word in the 1997 Scripps National  Spelling Bee?  Euonym was the winning
word for the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1997.  Euonym is an appropriate name for a person, place, or thing; i.e. The realtors name was Sue House.

Resource

Nym Words.  (1999 - 2012).  Retrieved May 14, 2012.  From www.fun-with-words.com/nym  
    words.html