Talk:allonym

Etymology of allonym

Seems like a problem with etymology... entry says "probably from French" - highly unlikely as "allonym" is from Ancient Greek A)LLOJ (allos) - other; and from O)NOMA (onoma) - name. French is perhaps later, but more likely taken directly from Greek. This is my first edit/post/comment on Wikipedia, so im not sure if im doing it correctly. Dylan Forbes-Wilkinson (talk) 11:54, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

@Dylan Forbes-Wilkinson: The parts are from Ancient Greek (see the entries for allo- and -nym), but the combination is a type of modern linguistic terminology that didn't exist in ancient times. The etymology is just saying that someone probably created a French term by combining the Ancient-Greek-derived prefix and suffix, and that it was this French word that would have been borrowed into English. It's like telephone: the fact that it's made up of Ancient Greek elements doesn't mean that they had a word for telephones in Ancient Greece. That said, if it's from French, then it would be from the French equivalents to the prefix and suffix- but that's a different matter. Chuck Entz (talk) 14:51, 7 June 2023 (UTC)