When it comes to the English language, there's always going to be something new to learn. It is impossible to know an entire dictionary and besides, with each passing year, new words enter the language and adaptations are made. In relation to usage, established words rise or fall. English is forever evolving.
I can't remember why this happened but the other day, I wondered if there was a cover-all term that might explain the names that are given to inhabitants of particular places. You know what I mean. In The Netherlands we find The Dutch, people from London are known as Londoners and people from Los Angeles are called Angelinos. "The Dutch", "Londoners" and "Angelinos" are all good examples of demonyms.
The word came into being in English in around 1860 being used mostly in academic circles where it had a certain niche popularity for about twenty years before falling into virtual disuse. Then in the mid nineteen-eighties its use began to rise again.
We find the prefix "demo" in "demographics" and we find the suffix "nym" in, for example "pseudonym", "synonym" and "antonym". "Demo" is to do with population and "nym" or "onym" concerns names or words.
Residents of Sheffield are known as Sheffielders while people from Hull are called Hullensians. Folk from Leeds are Loiners or Leodensians and those from Birmingham are called Brummies.
Blogger Andrew who creates "From the High Rise" in south eastern Australia is a Melburnian while Elsie (River) in South Australia is an Adelaidean.
It seems that not all settlements have demonyms attached to them. This is, I think, mostly true of villages.
Which demonyms might be accurately attached to you?
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/2yFAWak
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