Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A name by which a people or social group refers to itself.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One's own name; a real name: opposed to pseudonym and anonym.
- n. That which bears one's own name, as a book published under the author's real name.
- n. The self-same name; one and the same name for two or more things; a homonym.
- n. In anthropology, the name by which a people call themselves.
Wiktionary
- n. An infraspecific name in which the species epithet is repeated.
- n. 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 autonym of a people known in English as German.
- n. The true name of a person or other entity, especially an author.
Etymologies
- aut(o)- + -onym.
Examples
“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
“Issoudun, therefore, according to the researches of this antiquary, like other cities of France whose ancient or modern autonym ends in”
“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.”
“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.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘autonym’.
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Word Words
This used to be my nym list, but there are so many words about words, I think it's time to expand and open.
acronym, antonym, aptronym, autoantonym, autonym, bacronym, capitonym, contranym, contronym, eponym, exonym, heteronym and 120 more...
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Mundane Transformers
Bore that meets the eye.
potamogeton, testator, scrutator, isolator, confiteor, deflator, qwerty, susceptor, champertor, preemptor, disinfector, infractor and 91 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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-onym, -onymous, -onymic
denoting or relating to names
acronym, synonymous, patronymic, antonym, ananym, anonym, aptronym, autonym, caconym, cohyponym, cryptonym, dionym and 29 more...
jmjarmstrong JM always uses an autonym for privacy reasons Jun 17, 2010
whichbe Also: a fit name for an Autobot. Nov 23, 2008
mialuthien autonym – the self-assigned name of an ethnic group; self-appellation Jul 18, 2008