paleonymy
/ˌpeɪliˈɑnɪmi/
paleonymy noun: the use of a preexisting word in a new context.
Noun
paleonymy (countable and uncountable, plural paleonymies)
- The use of a preexisting word in a new context.
- Paleonymy stands in Takeuchi's text as a device to think such older words or concepts anew, therebv allowing them to effectively intervene in critical discourse.2005, Yoshimi Takeuchi, Richard Calichman, What is Modernity?: Writings of Takeuchi Yoshimi, →ISBN, page 8
- A paleonymy proceeds by continuing to use an old, traditional name while making the name different from what it always was, because one or more of the predicates associated with that name is being rethought and reworked.2012, Ed Pluth, Signifiers and Acts: Freedom in Lacan's Theory of the Subject, →ISBN, page 19
- The connotations that a word carries due to its historical meaning or meanings.
- I use the word "humanities," as the expression "English department," with a keen sense of the value of paleonymy.1992, James A. Berlin, Michael Vivion, Cultural Studies in the English Classroom, page 43
- It is my belief that unless the paleonymy of the language is felt in some rough historical or etymological way, the translator is unequal to her task.2005, Sandra Bermann, Michael Wood, Nation, Language, and the Ethics of Translation, →ISBN, page 100
Examples of paleonymy in a sentence
- In his introduction, he begins with the problem of paleonymy, the summoning up of old names in new circumstances, writing self-consciously about the form in which his text will present itself.2016, Christy Wampole, Rootedness: The Ramifications of a Metaphor, →ISBN, page 208:
- I should not have used this phrase because the word "violence" has a kind of paleonymy that suggests bad stuff.2007, Nermeen Shaikh, The present as history:
Forms of paleonymy
| plural | paleonymies |
|---|
Origin of paleonymy
From paleo- + -onymy.
Questions about paleonymy
- What does paleonymy mean?
- Paleonymy means the use of a preexisting word in a new context.
- How do you use paleonymy in a sentence?
- In his introduction, he begins with the problem of paleonymy, the summoning up of old names in new circumstances, writing self-consciously about the form in which his text will present itself.
- What part of speech is paleonymy?
- Paleonymy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce paleonymy?
- Paleonymy is pronounced /ˌpeɪliˈɑnɪmi/.
- What is the plural of paleonymy?
- The plural of paleonymy is paleonymies.
Words near paleonymy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: paleonymy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “paleonymy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/paleonymy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.