zoonymy

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not in OED.  "The creation or use of animal names":
1987 Umberto Rapallo in R. Crespo, B. D. Smith, & H. Schultink, eds.
_Aspects of Language: Studies in Honor of Mario Alinei_ II [Amsterdam:
Editions Rodolpi] 423: [N]evertheless, one cannot say that the typical
imprecision of popular pagan and Christian beliefs in [medieval] Welsh
zoonymy is such that the animal metaphors amount to mere complimentary
epithets....
JL

"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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