Origin of word synonym

There is a page Semantic relations on how these terms are used in Wiktionary.

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English sinonyme, from Latin synōnymum, from Ancient Greek συνώνυμον (sunṓnumon), neuter singular form of συνώνυμος (sunṓnumos, “synonymous”), from σύν (sún, “with”) + ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”); surface analysis, syn- +‎ -onym.

Pronunciation[edit]

• enPR: sĭn’ənĭm, IPA^(key): /ˈsɪnənɪm/

Noun[edit]

synonym (plural synonyms)

1. (semantics, strictly) A word whose meaning is the same as that of another word.

   Synonyms: equivalent, poecilonym

   Antonyms: antonym, opposite

2. (semantics, loosely) A word or phrase with a meaning that is the same as, or very similar to, another word or phrase.

   Synonym: metonym

   “Happy” is a synonym of “glad”.

   • 1991, William T. Parry, Edward A. Hacker, Aristotelian Logic‎^[1]:

     The proportion of English words that have an exact synonym is small.

3. (zoology) Any of the formal names for a taxon, including the valid name (i.e. the senior synonym).
4. (taxonomy, botany) Any name for a taxon, usually a validly published, formally accepted one, but often also an unpublished name.
5. (databases) An alternative (often shorter) name defined for an object in a database.

   • 2011, Paul Nielsen, Uttam Parui, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Bible:

     Synonyms are part of the SQL standard and are used frequently by Oracle DBAs. Note that Oracle includes both private and public synonyms.

Synonyms[edit]

• synonymum (non-native speakers’ English)

Coordinate terms[edit]

• coordinate term, hypernym, hyponym
• More: see Wiktionary:Semantic relations

Derived terms[edit]

[edit]

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

• homotypic
• heterotypic
• Wiktionary:Semantic relations

Nyms (with category [cat] if any)

nym	Sound	Spelling	Meaning	phone/graph
homonym	same	same	different	homophone & homograph
heteronym (cat)	different	same	different	homograph
heterograph	same	different	different	homophone (cat)
heterophone	different	same	same	homograph
synonym	different	different	same	—
alternative spelling	same	different	same	homophone
identical	same	same	same	not applicable
distinct	different	different	different	—

Danish[edit]

Adjective[edit]

synonym

1. synonymous

Inflection[edit]

Inflection of synonym
	Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Common singular	synonym	—	—2
Neuter singular	synonymt	—	—2
Plural	synonyme	—	—2
Definite attributive1	synonyme	—	—
1) When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding «indefinite» form is used. 2) The «indefinite» superlatives may not be used attributively.

Synonyms[edit]

• ensbetydende

Noun[edit]

synonym n (singular definite synonymet, plural indefinite synonymer)

1. synonym

Declension[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• “synonym” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “synonym” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

German[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /zynoˈnyːm/, [zy.no-], [ˌzʏ.no-]

Adjective[edit]

synonym (strong nominative masculine singular synonymer, not comparable)

1. synonymous

   Synonym: (rarer) synonymisch

Declension[edit]

[edit]

• Synonym
• Synonymie
• antonym, antonymisch
• Antonym
• Antonymie

Further reading[edit]

• “synonym” in Duden online
• “synonym” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Ancient Greek συνώνυμον (sunṓnumon), and συνώνυμος (sunṓnumos, “synonymous”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

synonym (neuter singular synonymt, definite singular and plural synonyme)

1. synonymous

Synonyms[edit]

• ensbetydende
• enstydig
• liketydig

Noun[edit]

synonym n (definite singular synonymet, indefinite plural synonym or synonymer, definite plural synonyma or synonymene)

1. synonym

Synonyms[edit]

• liketyding

Derived terms[edit]

• synonymordbok

[edit]

• synonymi
• synonymikk
• synonymitet
• synonympreparat

See also[edit]

• entydig

References[edit]

• “synonym” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Ancient Greek συνώνυμον (sunṓnumon), and συνώνυμος (sunṓnumos, “synonymous”).

Adjective[edit]

synonym (neuter synonymt, definite singular and plural synonyme, comparative synonymare, indefinite superlative synonymast, definite superlative synonymaste)

1. synonymous

Synonyms[edit]

• einstydande
• einstydig
• liketydig

Noun[edit]

synonym n (definite singular synonymet, indefinite plural synonym, definite plural synonyma)

1. synonym

Synonyms[edit]

• liketyding

Derived terms[edit]

• synonymordbok

[edit]

• synonymi
• synonymikk
• synonymitet
• synonympreparat

See also[edit]

• eintydig

References[edit]

• “synonym” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish[edit]

Adjective[edit]

synonym

1. synonymous

   Synonym: liktydig

Declension[edit]

Inflection of synonym
Indefinite	Positive	Comparative	Superlative2
Common singular	synonym	—	—
Neuter singular	synonymt	—	—
Plural	synonyma	—	—
Masculine plural3	synonyma	—	—
Definite	Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Masculine singular1	—	—	—
All	synonyma	—	—
1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine. 2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. 3) Dated or archaic

Noun[edit]

synonym

1. synonym

Declension[edit]

Declension of synonym
	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	synonym	synonymen	synonymer	synonymerna
Genitive	synonyms	synonymens	synonymers	synonymernas

Further reading[edit]

• synonym in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

This article is about the general meaning of «synonym». For other uses, see Synonym (disambiguation).

A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words begin, start, commence, and initiate are all synonyms of one another: they are synonymous. The standard test for synonymy is substitution: one form can be replaced by another in a sentence without changing its meaning. Words are considered synonymous in only one particular sense: for example, long and extended in the context long time or extended time are synonymous, but long cannot be used in the phrase extended family. Synonyms with exactly the same meaning share a seme or denotational sememe, whereas those with inexactly similar meanings share a broader denotational or connotational sememe and thus overlap within a semantic field. The former are sometimes called cognitive synonyms and the latter, near-synonyms,^[2] plesionyms^[3] or poecilonyms.^[4]

LexicographyEdit

Some lexicographers claim that no synonyms have exactly the same meaning (in all contexts or social levels of language) because etymology, orthography, phonic qualities, connotations, ambiguous meanings, usage, and so on make them unique. Different words that are similar in meaning usually differ for a reason: feline is more formal than cat; long and extended are only synonyms in one usage and not in others (for example, a long arm is not the same as an extended arm). Synonyms are also a source of euphemisms.

Metonymy can sometimes be a form of synonymy: the White House is used as a synonym of the administration in referring to the U.S. executive branch under a specific president.^[5] Thus, a metonym is a type of synonym, and the word metonym is a hyponym of the word synonym.^{[citation needed]}

The analysis of synonymy, polysemy, hyponymy, and hypernymy is inherent to taxonomy and ontology in the information science senses of those terms.^[6] It has applications in pedagogy and machine learning, because they rely on word-sense disambiguation.^[7]

EtymologyEdit

The word is borrowed from Latin synōnymum, in turn borrowed from Ancient Greek synōnymon (συνώνυμον), composed of sýn (σύν ‘together, similar, alike’) and —ōnym— (-ωνυμ-), a form of onoma (ὄνομα ‘name’).^[8]

SourcesEdit

Synonyms are often some from the different strata making up a language. For example, in English, Norman French superstratum words and Old English substratum words continue to coexist.^[9] Thus, today we have synonyms like the Norman-derived people, liberty and archer, and the Saxon-derived folk, freedom and bowman. For more examples, see the list of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English.

Loanwords are another rich source of synonyms, often from the language of the dominant culture of a region. Thus, most European languages have borrowed from Latin and ancient Greek, especially for technical terms, but the native terms continue to be used in non-technical contexts. In East Asia, borrowings from Chinese in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese often double native terms. In Islamic cultures, Arabic and Persian are large sources of synonymous borrowings.

For example, in Turkish, kara and siyah both mean ‘black’, the former being a native Turkish word, and the latter being a borrowing from Persian. In Ottoman Turkish, there were often three synonyms: water can be su (Turkish), âb (Persian), or mâ (Arabic): «such a triad of synonyms exists in Ottoman for every meaning, without exception». As always with synonyms, there are nuances and shades of meaning or usage.^[10]

In English, similarly, we often have Latin (L) and Greek (Gk) terms synonymous with Germanic ones: thought, notion (L), idea (Gk); ring, circle (L), cycle (Gk). English often uses the Germanic term only as a noun, but has Latin and Greek adjectives: hand, manual (L), chiral (Gk); heat, thermal (L), caloric (Gk). Sometimes the Germanic term has become rare, or restricted to special meanings: tide, time/temporal, chronic.^[11]

Many bound morphemes in English are borrowed from Latin and Greek and are synonyms for native words or morphemes: fish, pisci- (L), ichthy- (Gk).

Another source of synonyms is coinages, which may be motivated by linguistic purism. Thus, the English word foreword was coined to replace the Romance preface. In Turkish, okul was coined to replace the Arabic-derived mektep and mederese, but those words continue to be used in some contexts.^[12]

UsesEdit

Synonyms often express a nuance of meaning or are used in different registers of speech or writing.

Different technical fields may appropriate synonyms for specific technical meanings.

Some writers avoid repeating the same word in close proximity, and prefer to use synonyms: this is called elegant variation. Many modern style guides criticize this.

ExamplesEdit

Synonyms can be any part of speech, as long as both words belong to the same part of speech. Examples:

• noun: drink and beverage
• verb: buy and purchase
• adjective: big and large
• adverb: quickly and speedily
• preposition: on and upon

Synonyms are defined with respect to certain senses of words: pupil as the aperture in the iris of the eye is not synonymous with student. Similarly, he expired means the same as he died, yet my passport has expired cannot be replaced by my passport has died.

A thesaurus or synonym dictionary lists similar or related words; these are often, but not always, synonyms.^[13]

• The word poecilonym is a rare synonym of the word synonym. It is not entered in most major dictionaries and is a curiosity or piece of trivia for being an autological word because of its meta quality as a synonym of synonym.
• Antonyms are words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings. For example: hot ↔ cold, large ↔ small, thick ↔ thin, synonym ↔ antonym
• Hypernyms and hyponyms are words that refer to, respectively, a general category and a specific instance of that category. For example, vehicle is a hypernym of car, and car is a hyponym of vehicle.
• Homophones are words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings. For example, witch and which are homophones in most accents (because they are pronounced the same).
• Homographs are words that have the same spelling but different meanings. For example, one can record a song or keep a record of documents.
• Homonyms are words that have the same pronunciation and spelling but different meanings. For example, rose (a type of flower) and rose (past tense of rise) are homonyms.

See alsoEdit

• -onym
• Synonym (taxonomy)
• Cognitive synonymy
• Elegant variation, the gratuitous use of a synonym in prose
• Synonym ring
• Synonymy in Japanese
• Thesauri and synonym dictionaries – Reference work for synonyms

ReferencesEdit

External linksEdit

Complete and Partial Synonyms

Functions of Synonyms

1. manner of action (отключить /to unplug/ – обесточить /to deenergize/, погасить /to put out/ – задуть /to puff out/);
2. characteristic intensity (запах /smell/ – аромат /aroma/, новый /new/ – современный /modern/, старый /old/ – древний /ancient/).

Stylistic synonyms have different expressive shade and give different estimation. Furthermore, they often belong to different functional styles (мина /air/ – морда /muzzle/ – рыло /snout/ – лицо /face/ – лик /countenance/).
Distinctive features of semantic-stylistic synonyms include characteristics both of semantic and stylistic synonyms (идти /to go/ – плестись /to daddle/ – тащиться /to trudge/ – ковылять /to toddle/).

Structure of Synonyms

Source of Synonyms’ Origin 

According to the source of origin, synonyms can be:
— derived from originally Russian words: выдумать /to invent/ – придумать /to concoct/  
— derived from both Russian and borrowed words: антипатия /antipathy/ — нелюбовь /dislike/
— derived from completely borrowed words: директор /director/ – менеджер /manager/
— derived from folk-poetic, obsolete or, conversely, modern words: лазурный /azure/ — синий /blue/ 
— derived from Old Slavonic and Russian words: младой – молодой /young/, старец /elder/ — старик /old man/.
Modern Russian cannot exist without such important stylistic device as synonymy, which makes our speech much more multifacet and appellative. With the help of synonyms we are able to express different shades of one and the same notion.

The
distinction between synchronic and diachronic treatment is so
fundamental that it cannot be overemphasised, but the two aspects

¹
Ideolect
—
language
as spoken by one individual.

203

are interdependent. It is
therefore essential after the descriptive analysis of synonymy in
present-day English to take up the historical line of approach and
discuss the origin of synonyms and the causes of their abundance in
English.

The
majority of those who studied synonymy in the past have been
cultivating both lines of approach without keeping them scrupulously
apart, and focused their attention on the prominent part of foreign
loan words in English synonymy, e. g. freedom
:
: liberty
or
heaven
:
: sky,
where
the first elements are native and the second, French and Scandinavian
respectively. O. Jespersen and many others used to stress that the
English language is peculiarly rich in synonyms, because Britons,
Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans fighting and settling upon the soil
of the British Isles could not but influence each other’s speech.
British scholars studied Greek and Latin and for centuries used Latin
as a medium for communication on scholarly topics.

Synonymy
has its characteristic patterns in each language. Its peculiar
feature in English is the contrast between simple native words
stylistically neutral, literary words borrowed from French and
learned words of Greco-Latin origin. This results in a sort of
stylistically conditioned triple “keyboard” that can be
illustrated by the following:

Native English words	Words borrowed from French	Words borrowed from Latin
to ask	to question	to interrogate
belly	stomach	abdomen
to gather	to assemble	to collect
empty	devoid	vacuous
to end	to finish	to complete
to rise	to mount	to ascend
teaching	guidance	instruction

English
also uses many pairs of synonymous derivatives, the one Hellenic and
the other Romance, e. g. periphery
:
: circumference;
hypothesis :
: supposition;
sympathy :
: compassion;
synthesis :
: composition.

The
pattern of stylistic relationship represented in the above table,
although typical, is by no means universal. For example, the native
words dale,
deed, fair are
the poetic equivalents of their much more frequent borrowed synonyms
valley,
act or
the hybrid beautiful.

This
subject of stylistic differentiation has been one of much controversy
in recent years. It is universally accepted, however, that semantic
and stylistic properties may change and synonyms which at one time
formed a stylistic opposition only may in the course of time become
ideographically cognitively contrasted as well, and vice versa.

It
would be linguistically naive to maintain that borrowing results only
in quantitative changes or that qualitative changes are purely
stylistical. The introduction of a borrowed word almost invariably
starts some alteration both in the newcomer and in the semantic
structure of existing words that are close to it in meaning. When in
the 13th century the word soil
(OFr
soil,

204

soyil)
was
borrowed into English its meaning was ‘a strip of land’. The
upper layer of earth in which plants grow had been denoted since Old
English by one of the synonyms: eorþe,
land, folde. The
development of the group has been studied by A.A. Ufimtseva. All
these words had other central meanings so that the meaning in
question was with them secondary. Now, if two words coincide in
meaning and use, the tendency is for one of them to drop out of the
language. Folde
had
the same function and meaning as eorþe
and
in the fight for survival the latter won. The polysemantic word land
underwent
an intense semantic development in a different direction but dropped
out of this synonymic series. In this way it became quite natural for
soil
to
fill
the obvious lexical gap, receive its present meaning and become the
main name for the corresponding notion, i.e. ‘the mould in which
plants grow’.
The noun earth
retained
this meaning throughout its history, whereas the
word ground
in
which this meaning was formerly absent developed it.
As a result this synonymic group comprises at present soil,
earth and
ground.

The
fate of the word folde
is
not at all infrequent. Many other words now marked in the
dictionaries as “archaic” or “obsolete” have dropped out in
the same competition of synonyms; others survived with a meaning more
or less removed from the original one. The process is called
synonymic
differentiation
and is so current that M. Bréal
regarded it as an inherent law of language development. It must be
noted that synonyms may influence each other semantically in two
diametrically opposite ways: one of them is dissimilation, the other
the reverse process, i.e. assimi1atiоn.
The
assimilation of synonyms consists in parallel development. This law
was discovered and described by G. Stern. H.A. Trebe and G.H. Vallins
give as examples the pejorative meanings acquired by the nouns wench,
knave and
churl
which
originally meant ‘girl’, ‘boy’ and ‘labourer’
respectively, and point out that this loss of old dignity became
linguistically possible, because there were so many synonymous terms
at hand.

The
important thing to remember is that it is not only borrowings from
foreign languages but other sources as well that have made increasing
contributions to the stock of English synonyms. There are, for
instance, words that come from dialects, and, in the last hundred
years, from American English in particular. As a result speakers of
British English may make use of both elements of the following pairs,
the first element in
each pair coming from the USA: gimmick
:
: trick;
dues :
: subscription;
long distance (telephone) call :
: trunk
call; radio :
: wireless.
There
are also
synonyms that originate in numerous dialects as, for instance, clover
:
: shamrock;
liquor :
:
whiskey
(from
Irish); girl
:
: lass,
lassie or
charm
:
:
glamour
(from
Scottish).

The
role of borrowings should not be overestimated. Synonyms are also
created by means of all word-forming processes productive in the
language at a given time of its history. The words already existing
in the
language develop new meanings. New words may be formed by affixation
or loss of affixes, by conversion, compounding, shortening and so on,
and being coined, form synonyms to those already in use.

205

Of special importance for
those who are interested in the present-day trends and characteristic
peculiarities of the English vocabulary are the synonymic oppositions
due to shift of meaning, new combinations of verbs with postpositives
and compound nouns formed from them, shortenings, set expressions and
conversion.

Phrasal
verbs consisting of a verb with a postpositive are widely used in
present-day English and may be called one of its characteristic
features. (See p. 120
ff.)
Many verbal synonymic groups contain such combinations as one of
their elements. A few examples will illustrate this statement: choose
:
: pick
out; abandon :
: give
up; continue :
: go
on; enter :
: come
in; lift :
: pick
up; postpone :
: put
off; quarrel :
: fall
out; return :
: bring
back. E.g.:
By
the way, Toby has quite given up the idea of doing those animal
cartoons (Plomer).

The
vitality of these expressions is proved by the fact that they really
supply material for further word-formation. Very many compound nouns
denoting abstract notions, persons and events are correlated with
them, also giving ways of expressing notions hitherto named by
somewhat lengthy borrowed terms. There are, for instance, such
synonymic pairs as arrangement
:
: layout;
conscription :
: call-up;
precipitation :
: fall-out;
regeneration :
: feedback;
reproduction :
: playback;
resistance :
: fight-back;
treachery :
: sell-out.

An
even more frequent type of new formations is that in which a noun
with a verbal stem is combined with a verb of generic meaning (have,
give, take, get, make) into
a set expression which differs from the simple verb in aspect or
emphasis: laugh
:
: give
a laugh; sigh :
: give
a sigh; walk :
: take
a walk; smoke :
: have
a smoke; love :
: fall
in love (see
p. 164).
E.
g.: Now
we can all have a good read with our coffee (Simpson).

N.N.
Amosova stresses the patterned character of the phrases in question,
the regularity of connection between the structure of the phrase and
the resulting semantic effect. She also points out that there may be
cases when phrases of this pattern have undergone a shift of meaning
and turned into phraseological units quite different in meaning from
and not synonymical with the verbs of the same root. This is the case
with give
a lift, give somebody quite a turn, etc.

Quite
frequently synonyms, mostly stylistic, but sometimes ideographic as
well, are due to shortening, e. g. memorandum
:
: memo;
vegetables :
:
vegs;
margarine :
: marge;
microphone :
: mike;
popular (song) :
:
pop
(song).

One
should not overlook the fact that conversion may also be a source of
synonymy; it accounts for such pairs as commandment
:
:
command]
laughter :
: laugh.
The
problem in this connection is whether such cases should be regarded
as synonyms or as lexical variants of one and the same word. It seems
more logical to consider them as lexical variants. Compare also cases
of different affixation: anxiety
:
: anxious-
ness; effectivity :
: effectiveness,
and
loss of affixes: amongst
:
: among
or
await
:
: wait.

206

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