Editing Matronymic (section)

==Terminology of English==

The word ''matronymic'' is first attested in English in 1794 and originates in the [[Greek language|Greek]] μήτηρ ''mētēr'' "mother" (<small>[[Genitive case|GEN]]</small> μητρός ''mētros'' whence the [[combining form]] μητρo- ''mētro''-),<ref>{{LSJ|mh/thr|μήτηρ|ref}}.</ref>  ὄνυμα ''onyma'', a variant form of ὄνομα ''onoma'' "name",<ref>{{LSJ|o)/noma|ὄνομα|shortref}}.</ref> and the suffix [[wikt:-ικός|-ικός]] -''ikos'', which was originally used to form adjectives with the sense "pertaining to" (thus "pertaining to the mother's name"). The Greek word μητρωνυμικός ''mētrōnymikos''<ref>{{LSJ|mhtrwnumiko/s|μητρωνυμικός|shortref}}</ref> was then borrowed into Latin in a partially Latinised form (Greek ''mētēr'', dialectally ''mātēr'', corresponds to Latin ''mater''),<ref>{{L&S|mater|ref}}</ref> as ''matronomicus''. These words were a source for coining the English ''matronymic'' as the female counterpart to ''patronymic'' (first attested in English in 1612).<ref>"matronymic, n. and adj.". OED Online, 3rd edition. March 2018. Oxford University Press.</ref> Whereas the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' records an English noun ''patronym'' in [[free variation]] with the noun ''patronymic'', it does not, however, record a corresponding noun ''matronym''.

More rarely, English writers use forms based wholly on Greek: the noun ''metronym'' (first attested in 1904); and the noun and adjective ''metronymic'' (first attested in 1868).<ref>"metronymic, n. and adj."; "metronym, n.". ''OED Online'', 3rd edn. March 2018. Oxford University Press.</ref> These are, for example, the forms used in the 2016 ''The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland''.<ref>''The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland'', ed. by Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, Peter McClure (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).</ref> Speakers are in practice likely to use female-line name, or name of "his/her mother" to be both specific and avoid use of technical terms.