Autonymic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A term that relates to a name or label used by a speaker for themselves; characterizing a word that denotes itself; pertaining to a word that reflects its own meaning or identity in a specific context
2. Describing a name or term that refers to the speaker's own identity; relating to a self-referential term or label; characterized by a designation that identifies itself in usage and application
3. Referring to a term that is used by individuals to describe themselves; denoting a word that signifies its own meaning; relating to a name that uniquely represents its subject in linguistic discourse

Etymology: "Autonymic" is formed from "autonym" plus the adjective ending "-ic". The first part comes from Greek "autos", meaning "self", and the second from Greek "onyma", meaning "name". An autonym is a name for a thing that is that same thing's own name, or the term for a word used to refer to itself. Linguists use the word "autonymic" for this kind of self-reference, as in a sentence like "'Dog' has three letters," where the word "dog" is mentioned rather than used. The noun "autonym" is a modern coinage rather than an ancient term. It was built from classical Greek elements in the scholarly vocabulary of the 19th and 20th centuries, when linguists needed precise labels for quotation and self-reference. The adjective simply follows the same pattern, so its history is a straightforward compound of Greek roots applied to a technical sense.

Synonyms: self-naming