word meaning "resident of ..."

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 1/29/06, Mark Spahn <mspahn at localnet.com> wrote:
> What is the generic term for a resident of a place?
> I am looking for a term X such that we can say
> "The X for Turkey is 'Turk', the X for Liverpool
> is 'Liverpudlian'."
>
> I have found two similar terms, but their meanings
> do not quite fit:
>
> ethnonym: the name of an ethnic group, e.g., Turks, Arabs
>
> demonym: a name of people that refers to the place
> they came from, such as 'the Greek' in "Jimmy the Greek"
> or 'al-Zarqawi' in "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" (Abu Musab
> the Zarqan).

"Demonym" has also been used with the meaning you're looking for (as
by Paul Dickson in  _Labels for Locals_). See:

http://www.wordspy.com/words/demonym.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym
http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa030900a.htm


--Ben Zimmer

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