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Some "Nyms" in English

The Latin suffix nym refers to words of a certain class. Many of us already know synonym, words that are close in meaning, such as big and large.

Here are a few nyms you may not have heard of before:

 

Acronym: An acronym is a word that is actually an abbreviation made from the first letters in a longer name. Thus NASA is an acronym for National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

 Eponym: An eponym is proper or common name that is taken from another name. For example, the word watt, a unit of electrical energy, is taken from the name James Watt.

 Metonym: A metonym is a word that identifies something associated with it. For example, the city name, Ottawa, is often used to represent our national government (as in “Ottawa decides to lower taxes.”).

(March 13, 2011)

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