[Ads-l] Antedating of "Demonym"

[Shapiro, Fred]

Yes, I wondered about the timing of the letter from Scheetz to Dickson.  Maybe I should contact Dickson about that.

Fred Shapiro

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2025 7:49 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Demonym"

Fred Shapiro wrote:
> demonym (OED, 3., 1990)
>
> 1988 George H. Scheetz Names' Names.

Intriguing topic, Fred.
In 1990 Paul Dickson wrote about the coinage of "demonym". Dickson
credited the coinage to George H. Scheetz. Dickson stated that he
published an article in the March 1988 issue of Smithsonian magazine
that led to Scheetz to send him a letter, but Dickson did not give the
precise date for the letter.

Scheetz said in his letter to Dickson: "A better word for the name,
derived from a place name, for resident of that place, is demonym".

It is possible that this letter from Scheetz might have a date before
Scheetz's limited-edition chapbook titled "Names' Names".

Year: 1990
Book Title: What Do You Call a Person From...?: A Dictionary of Resident Names
Author: Paul Dickson
Section: Introduction
Quote Page xiii and xiv
Publisher: Facts On File, New York
Database: Internet Archive

[Begin excerpt]
One nagging detail that accompanied this project was that these terms
of residency have no commonly accepted name (patrial, ethnonym,
gentilitial and ethnic have been suggested but not accepted). At the
outset I needed to give my file a name, so I thought that until
something better came along I would label it domunyms (domus, Latin
for home, and nym, for name) . . .

After publishing several articles on my collection, including one that
appeared in the March 1988 Smithsonian magazine, I got several letters
noting that I could use some help with my neologism. The most
compelling case was made by George H. Scheetz, director of the Sioux
City Public Library and a member of the American Name Society and the
North Central Name Society who has actually made a study of words with
a -nym ending. Quoting the pertinent part of his letter:

... All but two historically occurring words ending in -nym actually
end in -onym, and all but approximately six percent are formed from
Greek root words.

In other words, the Latin root dom- (from domus), more correctly forms
domonym. However, the Greek root is already in use as a combining
form, domato- (from domatos), which forms domatonym. Literally, both
these combinations mean "a house name." The names Tara and The White
House are domatonyms.

A better word for the name, derived from a place name, for resident of
that place, is demonym, from the Greek demos, "the people, populace."
The names Utahn and Sioux Cityan are demonyms.
[End excerpt]

I cannot find an entry for "Names' Names" in WorldCat. Below is some
information about "Names' Names" from the Book Review section of
"Names: A Journal of Onomastics". Apparently, "Names' Names" was a
chapbook with a limited edition of 50 copies.

https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fans-names.pitt.edu%2Fans%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F1196%2F1195%2F2394&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C719632ab786f413618e508dda8798577%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638851962081403057%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2BrUnpQmOynhQIrBAVqhfOj%2FCHwxqclmUd%2BVhDjL%2FvLo%3D&reserved=0<https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/download/1196/1195/2394>

[Begin excerpt]
Names' Names: a Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon. By George H.
Scheetz. What's in a Name Chapbook Series 2. Sioux City, Iowa: Schutz
Verlag. 1988. Published in a limited edition of 50 copies. Pp. 20
$5.00 postpaid. Order from George H. Scheetz, 2814 Summit Street,
Sioux City, Iowa 51104-3743.

This is a second in a series of pamphlets written and published by
George Scheetz. The first, in 1986, is a complete explication of the
anthroponym and toponym (sense 2a) Trevor. A few copies of that
limited edition remain and are available from the author-publisher.
Names' Names is a glossary- an onymicon- of terms used by and useful
to those who work with names. This list, parts of which appeared in
Word Ways (1977) and in the ANS Bulletin (1981), contains 137 terms
having in common the suffix - onym (or in a few cases-anym), and it is
a big step toward a much- needed general glossary of onomastic
terminology.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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