Autonyms

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of word that describes itself, such as "autonym" being the name of its own category
2. Terms that reference themselves or their definitions, like a word that includes its own meaning within its name
3. Words that serve as their own identifiers, exemplified by a term that categorizes its own linguistic group

Etymology: "Autonyms" is the plural of "autonym", a term built from two Greek elements: "autós" meaning "self", and "-ónumos", from "ónoma" meaning "name". Combined, they produce a word meaning roughly "self-name," and the sense is exactly what the compound suggests: a term that names itself or its own category. The "-onym" ending came into European scholarly vocabulary through New Latin "-onymum", which borrowed the Greek "-ṓnumon" pattern for words that name things, so that words like "synonym" and "antonym" follow the same model. "Auto-" is the familiar Greek prefix meaning "self," seen in "automobile" and "autobiography." English then joined the prefix and the suffix to make a new coinage on the same pattern.

Synonyms: self-names, self-referential terms