metronymic
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
noun
Etymology
Origin of metronymic
First recorded in 1865–70, metronymic is from the Greek word mētrōnymikós “named after one's mother”
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.
Her forehand was clean and metronymic, her backhand powerful and poised.
From The New Yorker • May 29, 2019
BPM ends inside the club, where the same metronymic beat that once attended the members of ACT UP Paris, many now dead, in their joy, now supports them in their grief.
From Slate • Mar. 14, 2018
Among many tribes of the North American Indians this metronymic or maternal system was peculiarly well-developed.
From Sociology and Modern Social Problems by Ellwood, Charles A. (Charles Abram)
Strictly speaking, therefore, there has never been a matriarchal stage of social evolution, but rather a maternal or metronymic stage.
From Sociology and Modern Social Problems by Ellwood, Charles A. (Charles Abram)
Descent henceforth was reckoned in the paternal line, and society had become patronymic instead of metronymic.
From Society Its Origin and Development by Rowe, Henry Kalloch
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.
