Hydronyms

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Terms that denote the names of bodies of water such as rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans
2. Words used specifically to identify and describe geographical water features including rivers, lakes, and reservoirs
3. Nomenclature related to water bodies, encompassing the names of streams, lakes, seas, and other aquatic formations

Etymology: Hydronyms are named after a single Greek idea: the name of water itself. The first part comes from "hudor," the ancient Greek word for water, which also gave English "hydraulic" and "dehydrate." The second part, "onoma," meant "name," and it survives in English words like "synonym" and "anonymous." Put together, a hydronym is literally a "water-name." The suffix "-onym" was not an ancient Greek coinage for this purpose. It came from the Greek compound "-onymos," meaning "named" or "having a name," which Latin scholars later turned into "-onymum" in New Latin. English then borrowed the ending and attached it to "hydro-," producing a term for names of bodies of water. The plural form "hydronyms" simply makes the noun countable: one hydronym, many hydronyms. Like most words built this way, it was assembled from classical parts to name a category that needed a label.

Synonyms: water names, aquatic place names