autonym

[aw-tuh-nim]

noun

1. Also called endonym. Anthropology.,  the name that an ethnic, racial, or social group uses for itself or its language.

   “Inuit” is the autonym for a large subgroup of Indigenous Arctic peoples.

2. a person's real name.

   To all who replied to my post—if you send me your autonyms by email I'll gladly acknowledge your help in my upcoming article.

3. a book published under the real name of the author.

4. Biology.,  a trinomial of a subspecies of animal or variety of plant whose final epithet repeats the species name, as in Homo sapiens sapiens (modern human) or Pinus nigra nigra (European black pine): automatically created for the original type the first time another subspecies is named.

Word History and Origins

Origin of autonym¹

First recorded in 1865–70; aut- + -onym

Example Sentences

Anishinaabe is the autonym for a group of culturally related indigenous peoples of Canada and the United States that include the Odawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Oji-Cree, Mississaugas and Algonquin peoples.

From Washington Times

Autonym, aw′ton-im, n. a writing published under the author's real name.

From Project Gutenberg

With the belief that the stories are, however, still unknown to the larger portion of Mr. Crawford's public, and in the opinion that they are well worthy of preservation in more permanent form, the publishers have decided to reprint them as the initial volume of the "Autonym" library.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• brand 
• flag 
• label 
• nickname 
• sign 
• signature 
• style 
• term