A
demonym (
/ˈdɛmənɪm/; from
Ancient Greek δῆμος (dêmos) 'people, tribe', and
ὄνυμα (ónuma) 'name') or
gentilic (from
Latin gentilis 'of a clan, or
gens')
[1] is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place.
[2] Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, state, country, and continent).
[3] Demonyms are used to designate all people (the general population) of a particular place, regardless of ethnic, linguistic, religious or other cultural differences that may exist within the population of that place. Examples of demonyms include
Cochabambino, for someone from the city of
Cochabamba; French for a person from France; and
Swahili, for a person of the
Swahili coast.
As a sub-field of
anthroponymy, the study of demonyms is called
demonymy or
demonymics.
Since they are referring to territorially defined groups of people, demonyms are
semantically different from
ethnonyms (names of
ethnic groups). In the
English language, there are many
polysemic words that have several meanings (including demonymic and ethnonymic uses), and therefore a particular use of any such word depends on the context. For example, the word
Thai may be used as a demonym, designating any inhabitant of
Thailand, while the same word may also be used as an ethnonym, designating members of the
Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms. For example, a native of the
United Kingdom may be called a
British person, a
Briton or, informally, a
Brit.
Some demonyms may have several meanings. For example, the demonym
Macedonians may refer to the population of
North Macedonia, or more generally to the entire population of the
region of Macedonia, a portion of which is in
Greece. In some languages, a demonym may be borrowed from another language as a nickname or descriptive adjective for a group of people: for example,
Québécois,
Québécoise (female) is commonly used in English for a native of the province or city of
Quebec (though
Quebecer,
Quebecker are also available).
In English, demonyms are always
capitalized.
[4]
Demonym - Wikipedia