exonym
Americannoun
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a name used by outsiders for a place, such as Florence for Firenze.
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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 .
noun
Other Word Forms
- exonymic adjective
- exonymous adjective
Etymology
Origin of exonym
First recorded in 1955–60; ex(o)- ( def. ) + -onym ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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.
From The Guardian
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.