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Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Hokudai/Cast 81: Names and Months

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Hokudai/Cast 81 talks about the suffix ~onym. Onym means name. In English classes the most common word with the suffix ~onym might be either antonym (ant = against, opposite) or synonym (syn = same). A teacher might ask, "What is an antonym for cold?" And, of course, the students will scream out, "Hot!" Or a teacher might ask, "What is a synonym for cold?" And the students will yell out, "Chilly! Freezing!" 

However, if you go to wikipedia and look up ~onym you will find a long list of words that use the suffix ~onym.

In Hokudai/Cast 81 besides antonym and synonym, we mention:

heteronym (same spelling but different sound):
Desert (a sandy place with no water) and desert (abandon) 
Does (do something) and does (female deer)
Invalid (not valid) and invalid (a sick person)

homonym (different spelling but same sound): 
Eight and ate
Sail and sale
Two and too

pseudonym (fake name, pen name, stage name). 
Natsume Soseki is a pseudonym for Natsume Kinosuke
Richard Bachman is a pseudonym for Stephen King
Ken Ogata is a pseudonym for Akinobu Ogata

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Mirai Sozo is the School of Future Learning at Hokuriku University. The primary focus is on language (English and Chinese) and management (hospital administration, sports, and business).
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