onomatology

[on-uh-muh-tol-uh-jee]

noun

1. onomastics.

Other Word Forms

• onomatologic adjective
• onomatological adjective
• onomatologically adverb
• onomatoloist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of onomatology¹

1840–50; < Medieval Greek onomatología, equivalent to Greek onomatológ ( os ) collector of words ( onomato-, combining form of ónoma name + -logos; logos ) + -ia -ia; -logy

Example Sentences

This is not a study in onomatology, though the Smiths in turn may well have been descended from extremely skilled craftsmen, and directed that skill towards the written word.

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Onomatology, on-ō-ma-tol′o-ji, n. the science of, or a treatise on, the derivation of names.—n.

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Look, for instance, at his ingenious quaintness in the matter of onomatology.

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It was given out at the Bronx that our field expedition to Baffin Land was to be undertaken solely for the purpose of bringing back living specimens of the five-spotted Arctic woodcock—Philohela quinquemaculata—in order to add to our onomatology and our glossary of onomatopoeia an ontogenesis of this important but hitherto unstudied sub-species.

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Recent manifestations of an increasing interest in Indian onomatology, or at least of awakened curiosity to discover the meanings of Indian names, may perhaps justify the writer in offering, at the close of this paper, a few suggestions, as to the method of analysis which appears most likely to give correct results, and as to the tests by which to judge of the probability that a supposed translation of any name is the true one.

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