The story
- Ancient Greek · calque ofαὐτο-“self-”
- English todayselfname
From self (“own, proper”) + name. The autonym sense is possibly a calque of Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-, “self-”) + ὄνομᾰ (ónomă, “name”), which are the ultimate roots of English autonym itself.
Words from the same roots
Ancient Greekαὐτο- all →
autogyroauto-autotrophchemoautotrophphotoautotroph
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.