Ademonym (/ˈdɛmənɪm/; from Ancient Greekδῆμος (dêmos)'people,tribe' and ὄνυμα (ónuma)'name') orgentilic (from Latingentilis'of aclan, orgens')[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 includeCochabambino, for someone from the city ofCochabamba;Tunisian for a person from Tunisia; andSwahili, for a person of theSwahili coast.
Many demonyms function bothendonymically and exonymically (used by the referents themselves or by outsiders); others function only in one of those ways.
As a sub-field ofanthroponymy, the study of demonyms is calleddemonymy ordemonymics.
Since they are referring to territorially defined groups of people, demonyms aresemantically different fromethnonyms (names ofethnic groups). In theEnglish language, there are manypolysemic 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 wordThai may be used as a demonym, designating any inhabitant ofThailand, while the same word may also be used as an ethnonym, designating members of theThai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms. For example, a native of theUnited Kingdom may be called aBritish person, aBriton or, informally, aBrit.
Some demonyms may have several meanings. For example, the demonymMacedonians may refer to the population ofNorth Macedonia, or more generally to the entire population of theregion of Macedonia, a portion of which is inGreece. 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 ofQuebec (thoughQuebecer,Quebecker are also available).
Often, demonyms are the same as the adjectival form of the place, e.g.Egyptian,Japanese, orGreek. However, they are not necessarily the same, as exemplified by Spanish instead of Spaniard or British instead of Briton.[5]
English commonly uses national demonyms such asBrazilian orAlgerian, while the usage of local demonyms such asChicagoan,Okie orParisian is less common. Many local demonyms are rarely used and many places, especially smaller towns and cities, lack a commonly used and accepted demonym altogether.[6][7][8]
National Geographic attributes the termdemonym toMerriam-Webster editorPaul Dickson in a work from 1990.[9] The word did not appear for nouns, adjectives, and verbs derived from geographical names in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary nor in prominent style manuals such as theChicago Manual of Style. It was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his bookLabels for Locals.[10] However, inWhat Do You Call a Person From...? A Dictionary of Resident Names (the first edition ofLabels for Locals)[11] Dickson attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in hisNames' Names: A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon (1988),[3] which is apparently where the term first appears. The term may have been fashioned afterdemonymic, which theOxford English Dictionary defines, as the name of anAtheniancitizen according to thedeme to which the citizen belongs, with its first use traced to 1893.[12][13]
Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in theEnglish language. The most common is to add asuffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. These may resembleLate Latin,Semitic,Celtic, orGermanic suffixes, such as-(a)n,-ian,-anian,-nian,-in(e),-a(ñ/n)o/a,-e(ñ/n)o/a,-i(ñ/n)o/a,-ite,-(e)r,-(i)sh,-ene,-ensian,-ard,-ese,-nese,-lese,-i(e),-i(ya),-iot,-iote,-k,-asque,-(we)gian,-onian,-vian,-ois(e), or-ais(e).
TheTayabas Tagalog suffix-(h)in, which is mostly used by the natives in the province ofQuezon, is also used for their local or native demonyms inEnglish.
Adaptations from the standardSpanish suffix-e(ñ/n)o (sometimes using a final-a instead of-o for a female, following the standard Spanish suffix-e(ñ/n)a)
"-ese" is usually considered proper only as an adjective, or to refer to the entirety.[citation needed] Thus, "a Chinese person" is used rather than "a Chinese".[citation needed] Often used for Italian and East Asian, from the Italian suffix-ese, which is originally from the Latin adjectival ending-ensis, designating origin from a place: thus Hispaniensis (Spanish), Danensis (Danish), etc. The use in demonyms forFrancophone locations is motivated by the similar-sounding French suffix-ais(e), which is at least in part a relative (< lat.-ensis or-iscus, or rather both).
Mostly forMiddle Eastern andSouth Asian locales.-i is encountered also in Latinate names for the various people that ancient Romans encountered (e.g.Allemanni,Helvetii).-i.e. is rather used for English places.
It is much rarer to find demonyms created with a prefix. Mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of a particular ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of theLuba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, and the language,Kiluba orTshiluba. Similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti (Viti being the Fijian name forFiji). On a country level:
Demonyms may also not conform to the underlying naming of a particular place, but instead arise out of historical or cultural particularities that become associated with its denizens. In the United States such demonyms frequently become associated with regional pride such as "Burqueño" and the feminine "Burqueña" ofAlbuquerque,[23] or with the mascots of intercollegiate sports teams of thestate university system, take for example thesooner ofOklahoma and theOklahoma Sooners.[24]
Since names of places, regions and countries (toponyms) aremorphologically often related to names of ethnic groups (ethnonyms), various ethnonyms may have similar, but not always identical, forms as terms for general population of those places, regions or countries (demonyms).
Literature and science fiction have created a wealth of gentilics that are not directly associated with a cultural group. These will typically be formed using the standard models above. Examples includeMartian for hypothetical people ofMars (credited to scientistPercival Lowell),Gondorian for the people ofTolkien's fictional land ofGondor, andAtlantean forPlato's islandAtlantis.
Other science fiction examples includeJovian for those ofJupiter or its moons andVenusian for those ofVenus. Fictional aliens refer to the inhabitants of Earth asEarthling (from thediminutive-ling, ultimately fromOld English-ing meaning "descendant"), as well asTerran,Terrene,Tellurian,Earther,Earthican,Terrestrial, andSolarian (fromSol, the sun).
Fantasy literature which involves other worlds or other lands also has a rich supply of gentilics. Examples includeLilliputians andBrobdingnagians, from the islands ofLilliput andBrobdingnag in the satireGulliver's Travels.
In a few cases, where a linguistic background has beenconstructed, non-standard gentilics are formed (or the eponyms back-formed). Examples include Tolkien'sRohirrim (fromRohan), theStar Trek franchise'sKlingons (with various names for their homeworld), and theSangheili from theHalo franchise, (also known as Elites in the game by humans, as well as players) named after their homeworld of Sanghelios.
^Local usage generally reservesHawaiian as anethnonym referring toNative Hawaiians.Hawaii resident is the preferred local form to refer to state residents in general regardless of ethnicity.[14]
^Prior to the Massachusetts State Legislature designating "Bay Stater" as the state's official demonym, other terms used includedMassachusett, borrowed from the nativeMassachusett tribe,Massachusite, championed by the early EnglishBrahmins,Massachusettsian, by analogy with other state demonyms, andMasshole, originally derogatory.
