The Online Dictionary of Language Terminology (ODLT)


autonym
Definition - The name that either the inhabitants of a place or the members of the group call themselves.
Notes:
1. That which others call them is called an exonym.
2. According to the OED, the term once denoted: "A book published under the author's real name."

Example -
The word Deutschland is an autonym because it is what the inhabitants of the place call it; whereas Germany is the English speaker's exonym for that same place.

Etymology -
The word derives from the Greek autos, self or same, and onoma, name.



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