English Words with the Suffix -onym

Endonymy and exonymy; metonymy, hyperonymy, hyponymy: What do they all mean? Although compound words with the suffix -onym (a.k.a. nym words) may sound like something straight out of a medical textbook, let me assure you that not only are they not contagious (except in the harmless sense of contagious fun), but they are chock-full of information about how language works. As author and educator Richard Lederer points out, "exploring the secrets of nym...reveals one of the brightest delights of language-its ability to talk about itself." (Crazy English, Pocket Books 1998, p.63).

The -onym words can be intimidating to pronounce and understand. A good trick is to break each word down into its primary components and figure these out separately. All -onym words have the same suffix (-onym), which derives from a dialectal variant (onyma) of onoma, the Greek word for "name" or "word". So -onym words are about words and naming. All that is left to do now is to learn the meaning of the initial component of each -onym word, and mystery solved!

Here are some characteristic examples of English words with the suffix -onym:

An acronym (Greek akron = topmost point; cf. acrophobia) is a word made up of the initial letters of other words, as in scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). An interesting variant is the backronym (or bacronym), which is a reverse acronym, an acronym after the fact, so to speak. Probably the best known example of a bacronym is APGAR for the Apgar score, the rating system that assesses the viability of newborn babies. The Apgar score was named after Dr. Virginia Apgar, the American physician who devised it. APGAR did not start out as an acronym, but as an eponym (see below). Then it must have occurred to someone that each of the letters in APGAR could be understood to stand for each of the five parameters tested by the score, namely: activity, pulse, grimace, appearance, respiration: APGAR.

An antonym (Greek anti = in opposition to) is just a fancy way of saying "opposite", as in up vs down, near vs far, hot vs cold, etc.

Aside from Shakespeare (with his mercurial Mercutio, malevolent Malvolio, benevolent Benvolio, etc.), J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter fantasy series abounds in charactonyms. Take, for example, Prof. Remus Lupin, who turns out to be a werewolf. It shouldn't have come as a surprise if you'd stopped to think that Remus (one of the two legendary founders of Rome) was nursed by a she-wolf, a lupa (lupus is Latin for "wolf", hence Lupin). Prof. Lupin's nature is revealed in his name, in his charactonym. Therefore, a charactonym (from Greek charakter = that which is cut in, a distinctive mark) is a personal name that aptly describes the nature and personality of a literary character.

Endonyms and exonyms describe a kind of "you say po-tei-to, I say po-tah-to" semantic relationship. An endonym (Greek endon = within) is the name locals use to refer to their country, language, or themselves: For example, Deutschland, das Deutsch (die deutsche Sprache), die Deutschen. An exonym (Greek ekso = outside) is the word used by outsiders. In the above example, corresponding exonyms in English would be: Germany, German (language), the Germans.

An eponym (Greek epi = upon) is a personal name (or a place name) that is used to form a new word, a new name for something, as in volt (< Italian physicist Alessandro Volta), magnolia (< French botanist Pierre Magnol), hamburger (< Hamburg, Germany). The hamburger, which derives from a place name, is a toponym.

Simply put, a hyper(o)nym (Greek hyper = over) is a general word that includes more specific words, which are called hyponyms (Greek hypo = under). For example, animal is a hypernym, while dog, cat, finch, stingray, and Komodo dragon are some of its hyponyms. (To be precise, they are co-hyponyms because they share the same hypernym.)

A metonym (Greek meta = change of condition) is a word used to signify a more general or complex concept with which it is closely associated: Washington is often used as a metonym for the US government; coin for money; sweat for drudgery; jock for athlete.

Whether you think of a synonym as "a word you use when you can't spell the word you really want" (Lederer, loc. cit.) or have come to realize that "there are actually no true synonyms" (David Crystal: Words Words Words, OUP 2006, p. 149), your life (as well as your thesaurus) is brimming with words and expressions of almost identical or similar meaning, i.e. synonyms. Synonyms (Greek syn = with) can be widely interchangeable (e.g. movie and film) or not (e.g. a broad range or selection of scarves, but mountain range).

If the -onym family of compound nouns has been a royal (would you use the synonyms kingly or regal in this context?) pain in the patoot, maybe this presentation has made it a little bit less intimidating for you, or even (dare I hope?) whetted your appetite to explore this fascinating aspect of the English language.

Quiz:

What is the antonym of synonym?
What is the antonym of antonym?

Sources:

Merriam-Webster Online: http://www.m-w.com
Greek-English Lexicon by Henry G. Liddell and Robert Scott (OUP 1977)
Crazy English by Richard Lederer (Pocket Books 1998)
Words Words Words by David Crystal (OUP 2006)