tautonym
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From taut- + -onym or alternatively tauto- + -nym.
Noun
[edit]tautonym (plural tautonyms)
- (biology) A binomial name consisting of the same word twice, such as Bison bison.
- 2013 August 14, “Is oxeye daisy a Leucanthemum or a Chrysanthemum?”, in Botanical Accuracy[1]:
- And that would mean a species named Leucanthemum leucanthemum, with the genus and species epithet the same (a tautonym), which is a total no-no in botany.
- (linguistics) A word or term made from two identical parts or syllables, such as bonbon or dada.
- 2006 November 3, William Safire, “Language: Nifty gifties: Books full of words - Opinion - International Herald Tribune”, in The New York Times[2]:
- The chapter on reduplication - "flip-flopping higgledy- piggledy through the riffraff" - differentiates rhyming compounds like bigwig, hotshot, ragtag, sci-fi from repetitions called tautonyms, such as bye-bye, so-so, rah-rah, as well as from ricochet words in which the repeated element is modified: chit-chat, roly-poly, shilly-shally.
- An absolute synonym.
Synonyms
[edit]- (lingustics): reduplicant
