Comments on: Useful but rare vocabulary

By: Words and how we use them « Notes from underground

Words and how we use them « Notes from underground — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 06:06:09 +0000

[...] Mononymy: when people use just one name. [...]

By: Link love: language (47) « Sentence first

Link love: language (47) « Sentence first — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 09:26:35 +0000

[...] Mononymy: when people use just one name. [...]

By: annaandersonwrites

annaandersonwrites — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:00:55 +0000

Thank you, AZ. This was the exact word I needed today and I wanted you to know that I mightily appreciate you providing it.

By: Bob Richmond

Bob Richmond — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 14:59:50 +0000

Ronks is the old name of the township, and the Amish use it for the name of the town. The town of Intercourse was renamed by the “English” – maybe in the 1930s – and the Amish understandably find it offensive. The town was formerly named Crossed Keys.

By: arnold zwicky

arnold zwicky — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 14:31:57 +0000

1. The question about movie names was an example sentence, not an actual query. Surely you knew that.

2. As I said in the text, “There are cultures in which mononymy is commonplace, or even normative.” Indonesia has one such culture (maybe the most famous, because the country is so populous), but there are quite a few others.

3. As cubeb points out below, Ronks and Intercourse are distinct places (and both are distinct from Paradise, which is near to both of them).

By: cubeb

cubeb — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 14:09:28 +0000

?? Ronks and Intercourse are two different towns, five miles apart.

By: Bob Richmond

Bob Richmond — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 12:57:12 +0000

Rashomon? Ratatouille? Rache?

In Indonesia, even in public life people often have only one name, Sukarno being the best known of these. There are other Asian countries where people have more than one name.

Among the Old Order Amish of Lancaster Co. PA, most people have one of only six surnames, and there are only about twenty first names in common use. When necessary, people will use such epithets as Eli Stolzfus the harness maker. (He is – if he’s still working – a master craftsman working in Intercourse PA – which the natives call “Ronks”, by the way.)

By: Rick Sprague

Rick Sprague — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 12:08:22 +0000

I'd expect that the popularity of monomymous is limited by its potential confusion with monotonous and (especially after words ending in /m/) anonymous. As for dinymous and trinymous, they sound too much like showofffy Latin words in -imus.

By: arnold zwicky

arnold zwicky — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 06:00:54 +0000

Oh my, I should have checked. This might actually spread mononymous!

By: Ben Zimmer

Ben Zimmer — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 05:44:30 +0000

Wikipedia, at least, has embraced the term.