gerontonym

gerontonym

English

Etymology

geronto- +‎ -onym

Noun

gerontonym (plural gerontonyms)

1. A term, title, or name used for an old person (or set of people).
   • 1981, Patricia Ruth Whittier, Systems of Appellation Among the Kenyah Dayak of Borneo

     The Kenyah do not formally recognize any change in the individual's life, other than the acquiring of grandchildren, as a factor in the use of the gerontonym, but most people who are known by gerontonyms are beginning to "retire."

   • 1983, Sarawak Museum, The Sarawak Museum Journal:

     The use of the gerontonym is a form of respect, and it supersedes the teknonym or necronym. One does not attain a gerontonym simply by becoming a grandparent : young grandparents are not so designated.

   • 1990, Jérôme Rousseau, Central Borneo: Ethnic Identity and Social Life in a Stratified Society:

     Among the Lepo Tau , the assumption of a gerontonym tends to coincide with a gradual retirement from economic (although not political or ritual) participation (P. Whittier 1981: 140).

   • 1993, Borneo Research Council (Williamsburg, Va.), The Seen and the Unseen: Shamanism, Mediumship and Possession in Borneo

     Lake' is the gerontonym for men of grandparental generation ("doh" : "woman"). La'ing jok was the man's name. While Lake' is a title of respect, there was an element of irony in its use here. 14. Most Kayan men interpreted the ...

   • 1998, Jérôme Rousseau, Kayan Religion: Ritual Life and Religious Reform in Central Borneo, Brill

     When they reach grand-parental age, people become known by a gerontonym, the titles Lake' ('man') or Doh ('woman') before their own name.

   • 2005, Martin Reisigl, Ruth Wodak, Discourse and Discrimination: Rhetorics of Racism and Antisemitism, Routledge (→ISBN)

     ... this discourse were: 'Austria' (note the metonymic synecdochic totum pro parte), 'Waldheim' (often taken as a pars pro toto for all 'respectable' Austrians), 'the People's Party', 'the Wehrmacht generation' (note the militarising metonymic gerontonym)  ...

   • 2014, Peter Wategay, Coffin for Two, Partridge Publishing Singapore (→ISBN):

     In old age the person is given a gerontonym by which he must be addressed. Thus, after death the person is remembered only by the gerontonym or other teknonym, and the real name is forever lost.