-onym

Words in English with the suffix "-onym" refer to 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 neologisms that were incorrectly formed, and 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.

These "-onym" words may be freely created, sometimes for no other reason than to give an erudite impression of the user who expects his listeners to understand Greek, and it is in this way that words such as "ornithonym" or "ichthyonym" may be formed.

A list of -onym words

• 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")
• 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")
• 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
• 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"
• 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
• hypernym or hyperonym: 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 hypernym is said to be "superordinate" to 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 hypernym.
• 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.
• politonym: a name based on political criteriae.
• 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; also, the generic name Carnotaurus, which seems to be its own class of tautonym
• 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.
• toponym: a place or geographical name; the name of an area of the body, as distinguished from the name of an organ