Onymy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The use or system of names, especially the specialized terms a field uses to designate things
2. A naming system or body of terminology, particularly one that identifies things by their particular names
3. The application of names or specialized terms within a field of study, such as the labels given to concepts

Etymology: "Onymy" is a word for the system or body of names used in a language or field, and it is a deliberately built term. It is formed from the Greek "onoma", meaning "name", with the suffix "-y", which in English nouns like this marks a collection or system, as in "heraldry" or "peony" style formations. The same Greek root gives English many other words, such as "synonym" and "anonymous", which share the sense of a name. The word belongs to a family of scientific coinages built on "onoma" in the study of names, where scholars needed a single term for the whole body of naming practices. Its use is largely technical, found in onomastics, the branch of linguistics that studies proper names. It is not an old English word; it was made from classical materials to fill a gap in specialist vocabulary.