Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A name by which a people or social group refers to itself.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In anthropology, the name by which a people call themselves.
- noun One's own name; a real name: opposed to pseudonym and anonym.
- noun That which bears one's own name, as a book published under the author's real name.
- noun The self-same name; one and the same name for two or more things; a homonym.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun taxonomy An
infraspecific name in which the species epithet is repeated. - noun linguistics, anthropology A name used by a group or category of people to refer to themselves or their language, as opposed to a name given to them by other groups.
- noun The true name of a person or other entity, especially an author.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In the late 1980s, Blacks began to abandon the term Afro-American, adopting the autonym African American instead.
Logan Nakyanzi Pollard: Black's Fine, Thanks: Writer Deborah Dickerson Pulls the Obama Race Card 2008
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Issoudun, therefore, according to the researches of this antiquary, like other cities of France whose ancient or modern autonym ends in
The Celibates Honor�� de Balzac 1824
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Issoudun, therefore, according to the researches of this antiquary, like other cities of France whose ancient or modern autonym ends in
The Two Brothers Honor�� de Balzac 1824
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Endonyms usually come from the traditional language of a group, but foreign names for the group are also sometimes adopted and transformed into a type of autonym.
Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2008
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If a dweller was to get warped and decides to sue, all of her real estate assets are currently malignant; because they are in her autonym and piece does not own a will, confidence or power or attorney to protect them.
xml's Blinklist.com 2008
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Endonyms usually come from the traditional language of a group, but foreign names for the group are also sometimes adopted and transformed into a type of autonym.
Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2008
mialuthien commented on the word autonym
autonym – the self-assigned name of an ethnic group; self-appellation
July 19, 2008
whichbe commented on the word autonym
Also: a fit name for an Autobot.
November 23, 2008
jmjarmstrong commented on the word autonym
JM always uses an autonym for privacy reasons
June 17, 2010