In the Name of the 'Nyms' Trivia Quiz

Answer: from the Greek 'onoma'

Did you get this right? So much of our language originated from the Greeks, and this particular suffix is no different. From the Greek word 'onoma' which means name or word, -nym literally means name. You may find the size of the 'nym family' surprising, so won't you play along with me to 'Nym That Tune'? If you're interested in the incorrect choices, I made them up from Swift's 'houyhnhnms', and Brooklyn rapper 'Nymrod', to the French word 'agile' which translates to 'nimble'. Pretty eclectic, eh?

Answer: a name for people who live in a particular place

A demonym is a place name for people. It is derived from the Greek root for demographics, which is the statistical data of a population. Examples of demonyms include New Yorkers, Londoners, Melburnians and Michiganders. It definitely is NOT the root for Satan and his followers, (demonology); nor is it a name secretly used to refer to a specific noun, e.g., the Secret Service code name 'Lancer' to refer to President Kennedy or the sled 'Rosebud' (a cryptonym).

It also does not refer to a name that matches the occupation or character of its owner, like Mr. Sweet for the owner of a candy shop (an aptronym).

Answer: autonym

An autonym is a writer's real name, e.g., William Shakespeare (unless you believe the rumors) or Samuel Langhorne Clemens. An anonym, the root the same as for anonymous, is defined as a person whose name is not given or is given as something other than the owner's real name, e.g., Richard Bachman for Stephen King or anonymous for, umm, anonymous. An allonym is a name assumed by an author but belonging to another person, e.g., Madison and Hamilton published "The Federalist Papers" under the allonym Publius, a Roman counsul. An ananym is the name written backward - Rekkof Aircraft based on Fokker designs or Oprah Winfrey's company, Harpo Productions.

Answer: acronym

I hope you didn't pick the gram family since they have been feuding with the nyms for centuries. An acronym is a word created from the first letters, like NATO for North American Treaty Organization or laser from Light Amplification By Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

A hyponym describes a member of a certain class (not in a schoolroom), e.g., crow and robin are hyponyms belonging to the bigger class of 'bird' (but not Larry); in fact, a hyponym is sort of an antonym for a hypernym...but that is for another day.

Answer: synonym

Since an antonym is a word meaning the opposite of a given word, then the opposite of an opposite would be the same, i.e., a synonym which is a word having the same or nearly the same meaning as another word. Examples of synonyms are: afraid and scared, evil and wicked.

As for the other choices: homonyms have the same sound and spelling but different roots and meanings, e.g., right/wrong and right/left. Heteronyms are words spelled the same but with different pronunciations (minute - a measure of time, minute - very tiny), i.e., homographs which are not homophones. Exonyms are words for places which the people who live there don't use (Vienna vs. Wien).

Answer: a word derived from the proper name of a person

An eponym is a word derived from the proper name of a real or mythical person or place, e.g. a cardigan sweater is named after the Seventh Earl of Cardigan, and a sandwich comes from the Earl of Sandwich who is said to have put meat between two pieces of bread so that he could have a hand free to play cards.

A name used by a group of people to refer to themselves or their region is an endonym (Deutschland for Germany); words from the same root are called paronyms (as in "Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired"), and a place name or word associated with the place is a toponym (Bikini Atoll). I told you the 'nym' family was very large!

Answer: retronym

A retronym, as in the suffix 'retro' meaning before, is a new concept to describe an old one whose original name has become associated with something else, usually as a result of a technological advance. Examples of retronyms are: a pocket watch (after the invention of the wrist watch) and a fountain pen (as opposed to a ball point pen), and don't forget the new phrase, snail mail, for the old post office. True or false, you know what a pseudonym is.

A metonym is a word used in place of another, e.g, the White House for the president, it is also called a synecdoche (for an extra 100 points!).

A dionym is a name containing two parts or terms, like Homo sapiens.

Answer: mononym

Hopefully, the suffix 'mono' gave away the correct answer. I could list dozens of examples, but Bono, Oprah and Cher should suffice...you can come up with your own examples. In keeping with my full disclosure policy, the meaning of the incorrect choices are: isonym - a word having the same derivation as another, it is a synonym for a paronym (is that inbreeding?); a tautonym is a word containing two identical parts, like yo-yo, tutu, Bora Bora; a euonym is a name well suited to a person, place or thing, which could also be an aptronym. Uh-oh, the 'nyms' are starting to close ranks!

Answer: oronym

Oronyms are words that sound like a different sequence of words, e.g. I scream and ice cream, pullet surprise and Pulitzer Prize, secret Asian man and secret agent man. My favorite is from "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" which features the line "the girl with kaleidoscope eyes" as opposed to the girl with colitis goes by.

A patronym is a name derived from one's father; a caconym is a wrongly derived name (like a starfish which is not a fish); a capitonym is a word which changes its meaning when capitalized, e.g., Polish and polish, Turkey and turkey.

Answer: a synonym for a synonym

I am quoting here from 'the-difference-between.com' which describes the difference between a poecilonym and a synonym. "As nouns the difference between poecilonym and synonym is that poecilonym is a synonym: a word that means the same thing as another while synonym is a word or phrase with a meaning that is the same as, or very similar to, another word or phrase". So...did you get that??? Does it make you glad to be leaving the 'nym' family? Then let us leave with a tautonym: Bye-Bye!