Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun 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. For example, Deutschen is the endonym of a people known in English as German and Mapuche is the endonym for the people referred to by outsiders as Araucanos.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

endo- "inside" + -onym "name"

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word endonym.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • endonym – 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 (also called autonyms, names that come from inside the group)

    July 19, 2008