heteronymy

Noun

heteronymy (countable and uncountable, plural heteronymies)

1. The condition of being heteronyms; the relationship between two words with different meanings and either the same spelling or the same pronunciation but not both.
   • We find also the ancient term ārcūbālīstǎ (or with II,) which, with the aid of otosis, elision, and heteronymy, arising out of the varying use and changing shape of the weapon, will account for all the forms cited.1860, Samuel Stehman Haldeman, Analytic Orthography
   • The result of combined tautonymy and heteronymy can be either faster or slower replacement of non-American heteronyms, as these two examples demonstrate.2013, Gunnel Melchers, Philip Shaw, World Englishes, →ISBN
2. The unrelatedness of words for items that are related by being members of a single category.
   • ...phenomenon that is here called sex heteronymy, which implies that the two sexes of animals (or human beings, for instance relatives) are referred to by words which are altogether dissimilar as in bull: cow, (aunt: uncle) Deer.1968, Nils Thun, “Germanic Words for Deer”, in Studia Neophilologica, volume 40, number 1, page 2
   • The relations listed here are in fact fundamental: the synonymy relation leads to the analysis of an existing vocabulary into classes of equivalent expressions (these can for instance belong to different sub-languages, or domains of use, or be of different degrees of complexity); the hyponymy...1979, Dieter Wunderlich, Foundations of Linguistics, →ISBN, page 250
3. (broadly) Dissimilarity of people in a single group.
   • Differentiation simply increases, on a grander scale, the heteronymy and chaos that are the historical attribute of this society.1994, Veit Erlmann, “'Africa civilised, Africa uncivilised': local culture, world system and South African music”, in Journal of Southern African Studies, volume 20, number 2
   • The highest value of total consanguinity based on random isonymy is observed in Sanabria, which also has the lowest values of heteronymy and the highest intra-population a priori kinship.2010 December, L Alvarez, C Mendoza, RM Nogués, MP Aluja, C Santos, “Biodemographic and genetic structure of Zamora Province (Spain): insights from surname analysis”, in Human ecology, volume 38
4. The use of multiple names for a single person or thing; polyonymy
   • German dialects show a great deal of heteronymy for spring and autumn, English ones mainly for autumn. This is surprising in view of the fact that historically the English terms for 'spring' show greater heteronymy than those for 'autumn'.1994, Dieter Kastovsky, Studies in Early Modern English, →ISBN, page 93
   • The self-abnegating state of shame proves to be allied with another of the key figures of Agamben's discourse: heteronymy. This notion is understood here in the sense of characters and fictional authors functioning as alter egos of the author or narrator: the multiple names are seen as referring to...2008, Linda Ben-Zvi, Angela Moorjani, Beckett at 100: Revolving It All, →ISBN
5. A single word or symbol that can have different but related meanings.
   • Heteronymies, or propositions false in S by virtue of the meanings of the terms entering in them.1961, George Edward Moore, Mind, page 240
   • An intensional 'enrichment' of logical language, on the other hand, which might succeed in matching the endogenic heteronymies of ordinary language, can do so only at the price of semantic transparency.1980, Hansjakob Seiler, Gunter Brettschneider, Christian Lehmann, Wege zur Universalien Forschung
6. Resulting from the actions of multiple or external causal agents.
   • If we are to define emotion as distinctly representative in character, must we not ascribe emotion to all the lower animal forms only by heteronymy ?1896, Jacob Gould Schurman, James Edwin Creighton, Frank Thilly, The Philosophical Review - Volume 5, page 297
   • Is it passional or rational; is it religious, or legal and social; is it moral heteronymy or moral autonomy; is it moral result or moral intention; is it the authority of self or that of church or of state ?1910, Charles De Garmo, Ethical training, page 27