Words That Bend the Rules

The Nym Family Part 4

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Metonym

One of the less well-known members of the -nym family is metonym.

In Greek meta means change or beyond. Literally the word metonym means a change of name. A metonym is a word or phrase used in place of another because of a close association. It’s kind of a linguistic short cut or nickname.

Here are some examples:

The Film Industry — Hollywood

The Monarchy — The Crown

Financial sector — Wall Street

Writing or Communication — The Pen

Demonym

Another often ignored member of the family is demonym. The word comes from the Greek demo (people) and the usual family name — literally, name of a people.

Demonym is the name for people from a certain place.

New Yorker (a person from New York)

Buckeye (a person from Ohio) named from the buckeye tree, whose nut resembles a deer’s eye.

Liverpudlian (lovely word for a person from Liverpool)

Dutch (people from the Netherlands. Comes from the German word Deutsch, which doesn’t help at all.)

Contranym