The story
From hyper- (“over”) + -nym (“name”). From Ancient Greek roots; compare Latinate “superordinate term”.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
hypernym
Today it means: A superordinate word or phrase; a term whose referents form a set which includes as a subset the referents of a subordinate term—as, for example, insect (being a hypernym) for ant. Full definition →