Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The name of a person, usually a historical person, assumed by a writer.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A name other than the true one; an alias; a pseudonym.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The name of another person assumed by the author of a work.
  • noun A work published under the name of some one other than the author.

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

  • noun the name of another person taken by an author as a pen name. Compare pseudonym.
  • noun a work published under a name that is not that of the author.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French allonyme : Greek allos, other; see allo– + Greek onoma, name; see nŏ̄-men- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French allonyme, allo- + -nym.

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Examples

  • French anonymous pure mathematians, who wrote under the collective allonym, "The Bourbaki".

    The Guardian World News 2010

  • - other person's name assumed by writer; work published under an allonym. allonymous,

    xml's Blinklist.com 2008

Comments

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  • a. The name of some one else assumed by the author of a work (compare pseudonym); b. different words for the same thing within a language (compare polyonymy).

    The second meaning was adopted in the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage (Oxford University Press 1996, p. xliii). As many Caribbean islands are independent nations, when they have divergent spellings and vocabulary, no one usage can be deemed standard. For example: eggplant is antrover (Antigua, Barbuda), aubergine (Antigua, Grenada, St. Vincent, Trinidad), baigan (Guyana, Trinidad), balagé (Montserrat), balangene (Dominica, Grenada), balanger (St. Vincent), balanjay (Barbados, Guyana, St. Vincent), banja (Montserrat, St. Vincent), bélanjenn, bélanjin (Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia), bolanger, boulanger (Barbados, Guyana, Montserrat, St. Vincent, US Virgin Islands), bringal (Trinidad), brown-jolly (Jamaica), chuber (Antigua, St. Kitts), egg-fruit (Caribbean Creole), garden-egg (Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Turks & Caicos), melongene (Dominica, St. Lucia, Trinidad), melonger (British Virgin Islands, St. Kitts), truber (Nevis, St. Kitts) and volanjay (Barbados).

    May 16, 2008

  • JM heretofore has not assumed an allonym but henceforth will be known as KN (but only for the period of the current status).

    August 30, 2010