theonymy

English

Etymology

From theo- +‎ -onymy.

Noun

theonymy (uncountable)

1. The names given to gods, collectively.
   • 1985, Stephen Rudy (ed), Roman Jakobson: Selected Writings, →ISBN, page 45:

     The widespread occurrence of both roots in the theonymy of the Indo-European world, their prevalent merger into one divine name, and the striking resemblance in mythological functions tied to this onomastics enable us to look for the same ancestry of all historically attested variants.

   • 2002, Bernard M. Levinson, Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation, →ISBN, page 34:

     Were that the case, it would only strengthen my position: for Deuteronomy, at the time of its composition, like the Qumran Temple Scroll, would then constitute a divine pseudepigraph, with theonymy the ultimate trope of authority.

   • 2010, Stephen Burt, David Mikics, The Art of the Sonnet, →ISBN, page 215:

     Since the octave describes the nonhuman parts of Creation, it omits both morality and theonymy: God and Christ are never named.

Derived terms

• literal theonymy

Related terms

• theonym