Meanings
- uncountableThe use of the name for a group or geographic region by outsiders, as opposed to that by its members or inhabitants.
Eduardo Viveiros de Castro (Brazil/Paris) analysed the comparative relation between exonymy and endonymy in lowland South America.
2000 June, B Bodenhorn, G vom Bruck, “Processes of Naming”, in Anthropology Today, volume 16, number 32 more examples
As such, there arises a symbolic association between endonymy and the firstborn, and exonymy and the last-born, in keeping with the idea that the firstborn represents internal continuity and the last-born represents the transformation associated with exteriority. Indeed, in the practice of name-giving, the names of the firstborn come from the closest kin and from what is "inside", whereas the names of the last-born come from more distant kin and from what is increasingly "outside."
2008, Tany˜xiwe's Journey: A Javae Theory of History, →ISBN, page 998First it will examine the etymologies of the various groups as products of Egyptian nomenclature (exonymy) or indigenous nomenclature (endonymy).
2011, William Cooney, Egypt's encounter with the West: Race, Culture and Identity in Pacific Linguistics (thesis, Durham University)
Origin
Cite this entry
exonymy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exonymy
“exonymy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exonymy. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “exonymy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exonymy.
Source: exonymy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.