All posts by Brent

iconicity

Definition | Meaning

  1. The likelihood that a given brand name will be readily visualized by its intended audience.

Example | Illustration

  • the name of the computer company Apple lends itself to easy iconicity

Etymology | Origin

holonym

Definition | Meaning

  1. Any word which encompasses the entire category.

Example | Illustration

  • ‘body’ is a holonym of ‘head’, ‘hand’, etc.

Etymology | Origin

  • Greek holo ‘whole’ + onuma ‘name’

hieronym

Definition | Meaning

  1. Any brand name derived from mythology or religion.

Example | Illustration

  • Saint Brendan’s Superior irish cream liqueur, named after the Irish saint
  • Zeus salad dressing, named after the Greek god

Etymology | Origin

  • Greek hieros ‘holy’ + onuma ‘name’

heteronym

Definition | Meaning

  1. Any word identical to another in its written form, but different in sound and meaning.

Example | Illustration

  • the present tense of the verb ‘to read’ (i.e. “Let’s read this story together”.) and the past participle of the same verb (i.e. “He read me a lovely poem”.)

Etymology | Origin

haplology

Definition | Meaning

  1. A sporadic sound change characterized by the omission in speech of one of several consecutive identical sounds or syllables.

Example | Illustration

  • instead of pronouncing three individual ‘w’s to describe the ‘www’ of a URL address, people may only pronounce one or two ‘w’s

Etymology | Origin

gerund

Definition | Meaning

  • In English, the verbal form ending in ‘-ing’, conveying the meaning of the verb but used as a noun.

Example | Illustration

  • Martha Stewart Living magazine