Onomastic

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˌɒ.nəʊˈmæs.tɪk/

Definitions

1. Concerning the academic study of names and their derivations
2. Pertaining to the investigation and analysis of names, including their origins and meanings
3. Connected with the linguistic and historical examination of personal and place names

Etymology: "Onomastic" comes from the Greek verb "onomazein," meaning "to name," itself built on "onoma," the word for "name." Greek speakers added the suffix "-astikos," which turned a verb of naming into an adjective meaning "of or pertaining to naming," and the term was borrowed directly from that Greek adjective into English. The result is a word that describes not a name itself but the study of names and where they come from. The chain of formation is worth seeing step by step. "Onoma" traces back to a very old Indo-European root for "name," which is also the ancestor of the English word "name." So the English word for the study of names is, at a distant remove, a cousin of the plain word you use every day. The Greek suffix "-tikos," used to form adjectives meaning "relating to" an action, was attached to the verb stem, producing a term that sounds technical but is built from materials most English speakers already know.

Synonyms: naming, appellative, onomatological, onomatologic