poecilonym

plural poecilonyms

1. rareAny of several names for a thing; an alternative name.

   It's high time I looked for another job and got as far away from homonyms, synonyms, antonyms — to say nothing of caconyms, eponyms, and poecilonyms!

   2006, Nero Blanc, Death on the Diagonal, page 147

   2 more examples

   >> Is there another word for synonym? >Actually, there is: poecilonym Take care, though; ‘poecilonym’ can only be used for the taxonomic meaning of ‘synonym’--an incorrect or obsolete systematic name for a genus or species.

   1999 July 27, Ucalegon, “Missing aircraft”, in alt.anagrams (Usenet)

   Maybe we could all use a few spanking old poecilonyms. Poecilonym? It's an old synonym for synonym that you'll find in these pages. But many words in this dictionary have no real counterparts in today's English.

   1997, David Grambs, The Endangered English Dictionary: Bodacious Words, page xi

   Synonyms: alias, synonym

2. Synonym of hybridism.

   This is also a type of poecilonym or hybrid word; cf. such a word as “aeneolithic” (=chalcolithic) in English.

   1977, Robert H. Stacy, Defamiliarization in Language and Literature, Syracuse University Press, →ISBN, page 52

   Synonyms: hybridism