exonym

[ek-soh-nim]

noun

Anthropology.

1. a name used by outsiders for a place, such as Florence for Firenze.

2. a name used by outsiders to refer to an ethnic, racial, or social group or its language that the group itself does not use, such as Chamorro rather than CHamoru .

exonym

/ ˈɛksəˌnɪm /

noun

1. a name given to a place by foreigners

   Londres is an exonym of London

Other Word Forms

• exonymic adjective
• exonymous adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of exonym¹

First recorded in 1955–60; ex(o)- ( def. ) + -onym ( def. )

Word History and Origins

Origin of exonym¹

C20: from Greek _ex- ¹ + _-onym

Example Sentences

The term is what Ancient Greek rhetoricians would have called an “exonym”: a term for another group, which signals that the speaker does not belong to it.

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