Dictionary

onomastician en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ Proto-Hellenic *ónomə Ancient Greek ὄνομᾰ (ónomă) Ancient Greek -ᾰ́ζω (-ắzō) Ancient Greek ὀνομάζω (onomázō) Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Hellenic *-tis Ancient Greek -τῐς (-tĭs) Ancient Greek -σῐς (-sĭs) Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Hellenic *-kos Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) ? Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Hellenic *-tós Ancient Greek -τος (-tos) ▲ Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) ? Ancient Greek -τῐκός (-tĭkós) Ancient Greek ὀνομᾰστῐκός (onomăstĭkós)bor. English onomastic Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Italic *-nos Proto-Italic *-ānos Latin -ānus Latin -iānusbor. English -ian English onomastician From onomastic + -ian.

Meanings

1. A person who studies onomastics; one who studies or researches names.
   • The semantics of names vs. the semantics of words has been the most attractive and active field of inquiry in onomastics, investigating a large cultural variety of names and their embeddedness in many different languages. It is not surprising therefore that the onomastician’s closest ally is the lexicologist; the student of names is most easily understood by the student of words. 1984, W. F. H. Nicolaisen, “What Crisis in Onomastics?”, in Names: A Journal of Onomastics, volume 32, number 1, →DOI, →ISSN, page 17:
   • As an onomastician, I take it to be axiomatic that name choice in a great author’s works is a highly controlled and deliberate act. 2006, Jeremy Parrott, “‘Change All the Names’: A Samuel Beckett onomasticon”, in il Nome nel testo. Rivista internazionale di onomastica letteraria, →ISSN, page 615:
   • What is a mere layman doing amongst people talking about such a specialised subject. Shouldn’t the organisers have invited our only onomastician to give this keynote? 2020, Bojosi Otlhogile, “‘A Name Tells a Story’: Botswana’s Place, Street and Landmark Names – A Layman’s Perspective”, in Botswana Notes and Records, volume 52, →ISSN, →JSTOR, page 138:

Forms

Coordinates

nomenclaturist

Relateds

onomatopoetic · onomasiology · onomatopoeic · onomastic · onomatopoeia · onomatology · onomasticon

Synonyms

onomatologist · onomasiologist · onomast

Translations (20)

pl onomasta (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · fr onomasticienne (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · de Namenforscher (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · de Namenforscherin (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · de Onomatologin (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · sl imenoslôvka (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · de Onomasiologe (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · de Namenkundler (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · cs onomastik (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · sk onomastička (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · de Namenkundlerin (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · cs onomastička (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · cmn 專名學家 /专名学家 (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · fr onomasticien (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · de Onomastiker (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · de Onomatologe (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · sl imenoslovec (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · de Onomastikerin (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · de Onomasiologin (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names) · sk onomastik (person who studies onomastics, person who studies names)