Some of the most oft usedwordsin the Englishlanguagemust have been produce by someone with a mephistophelean sense of wittiness . The wordmonosyllabicisn’t one syllable , longis only four letters , lispis hard to pronounce if you have a list-processing language , andsynonymdoesn’t have any equivalent word . Or does it ?
The solution to that last question is a bit complicated . Thesaurus.comlistsmetonymas a synonym ofsynonym , but their signification are n’t exactly the same . The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammardefinessynonymas “ a Book or phrase that means the same , or almost the same , as another in the same lyric . ”Metonym , on the other hand , is defined as “ a word or expression which is used as a backup man for another word or face with which it is in a closelipped semantic kinship . ” For instance , the crowncan be used to refer to the king , andWashingtonsometimes refers to the U.S. government .
There is another theory , though : poecilonym . This is probably the closest equivalent word ofsynonym , although it ’s antiquated and rarely used . David Grambs , a lexicologist for American Heritage and Random House , admit it in his 1997 bookThe Endangered English Dictionary : Bodacious word Your Dictionary Forgot . The parole is pronounced “ PEE - si - lo - nim , ” according to Grambs , who pay up homage to its obscurity . “ Maybe we could all use a few spanking old poecilonyms , ” Grambswrote . “ Poecilonym ? It ’s an quondam synonym forsynonymthat you ’ll find in these page . But many words in this dictionary have no actual counterparts in today ’s English . ”
Allen ’s Synonyms and Antonymsfrom 1920 alsolistedpoecilonymand another Good Book — polyonym — as synonyms ofsynonym . However , it state both of these full term are rare . So technically , there are two other words that have the same meaning assynonym , but it ’s a tough position to argue when those words are no longer in modern utilization .
To add another dimension to this doubt , some have argued that there are no true synonym at all , as every single word carry a different shade of signification . “ Even though the meanings of two speech may be the same or nearly the same , they almost never are the same in connotation , statistical distribution , and frequency , ” Dictionary.comnotedin 2018 . “ Houseandhomemay be pop the question as synonyms for each other , but we all know that they are not the same . ”
So if you desire to get usingpoecilonymorpolyonymin place ofsynonym , you ’d technically be correct — but do n’t expect anyone else to know what you ’re talking about .
A adaptation of this narrative unravel in 2018 ; it has been updated for 2023 .
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