Demonym: Difference between revisions

Demonym (edit)

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 {{Short description|Name for a resident of a locality}}
-{{linguistics}}
 A '''demonym''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|d|ɛ|m|ə|n|ɪ|m}}; from [[Ancient Greek]] δῆμος, ''dêmos'', "people, tribe" and ὄνυμα, ''ónyma'', "name") or '''gentilic''' (from [[Latin]] ''gentilis'', "of a clan, or [[gens]]")<ref>{{cite web|title=Dictionary|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gentilic|website=Merriam Webster|access-date=25 July 2015}}</ref> is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place.{{sfn|Roberts|2017|p=205}} Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, state, country, continent, planet, and beyond).<ref name="Scheetz">{{Cite book|title=Names' Names: A Descriptive and Pervasive Onymicon|author=George H. Scheetz|publisher=Schütz Verlag|year=1988}}</ref> Demonyms are used to designate all people (the general population) of a particular place, regardless of ethnic, linguistic, religious or other cultural differences that may exist within the population of that place. Examples of demonyms include ''Cochabambino'', for someone from the city of [[Cochabamba]]; ''[[Americans|American]]'' for a person from the [[United States of America]]; and ''[[Swahili people|Swahili]]'', for a person of the [[Swahili coast]].
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 English commonly uses national demonyms such as ''Ethiopian'' or ''Guatemalan'', while the usage of local demonyms such as ''[[Chicago]]an'', ''[[Okie]]'' or ''[[Paris]]ian'' is less common. Many local demonyms are rarely used and many places, especially smaller towns and cities, lack a commonly used and accepted demonym altogether.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=from+Russia%2CRussian&year_start=1808&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cfrom%20Russia%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CRussian%3B%2Cc0|title=Google Ngram Viewer|work=google.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=from+Kentucky%2CKentuckian&year_start=1808&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cfrom%20Kentucky%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CKentuckian%3B%2Cc0|title=Google Ngram Viewer|work=google.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=from+Perth%2CPerthite&year_start=1808&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cfrom%20Perth%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CPerthite%3B%2Cc0|title=Google Ngram Viewer|work=google.com}}</ref> Often, in practice, the demonym for [[U.S. state|states]], [[provinces]] or [[cities]] is simply the name of the place, treated as an adjective; for instance, ''[[Kennewick Man]]'' and ''[[Massachusetts|Massachusetts Resident]]'' (though the demonym ''Bay Stater'', derived from its nickname, is also available, as is the more formal ''Massachusite'').
+==Etymology==
+''[[National Geographic]]'' attributes the term ''demonym'' to [[Merriam-Webster]] editor [[Paul Dickson (writer)|Paul Dickson]] in a recent work from 1990.<ref>{{cite journal |publisher=National Geographic Society (U.S.) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=krIOAAAAIAAJ&q=demonym |title=Gentilés, Demonyms: What's in a Name? |journal=[[National Geographic Magazine]] |volume=177 |date=February 1990 |page=170}}</ref> The word did not appear for nouns, adjectives, and verbs derived from geographical names in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary nor in prominent style manuals such as the ''[[The Chicago Manual of Style|Chicago Manual of Style]]''. It was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book ''Labels for Locals''.<ref>{{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04EEDB143CF937A25751C1A961958260&scp=1 |date=1997-12-14 |author=William Safire |author-link=William Safire |title=On Language; Gifts of Gab for 1998}}</ref> However, in ''What Do You Call a Person From...? A Dictionary of Resident Names'' (the first edition of ''Labels for Locals'')<ref>''What Do You Call a Person From...? A Dictionary of Resident Names'' by Paul Dickson (Facts on File, February 1990). {{ISBN|978-0-8160-1983-0}}.</ref> Dickson attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his ''Names' Names: A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon'' (1988),<ref name="Scheetz"/> which is apparently where the term first appears. The term may have been fashioned after ''demonymic'', which the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' defines as the name of an [[Athenian]] [[citizen]] according to the [[deme]] to which the citizen belongs, with its first use traced to 1893.<ref name="OED">{{cite web |url=http://www.oed.com/ |title=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/constitutionofat00arisuoft |title=Aristotle's ''Constitution of Athens'', edited by J.E. Sandy, at the Internet Archive |year=1912 |page=116}}</ref>
 == References ==
 {{Reflist}}