Editing Synonym (section)

==Sources==

Synonyms are often from the different [[Stratum (linguistics)|strata]] making up a language. For example, in English, [[Norman French]] [[superstratum]] words and [[Old English]] [[Substratum (linguistics)|substratum]] words continue to coexist.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3qs0AQAAMAAJ&q=origin+on+english+synonym&pg=PA1|title=The Making of English|last=Bradley|first=Henry|date=1922|publisher=Macmillan and Company, Limited|language=en}}</ref> Thus, today there exist synonyms like the Norman-derived ''people'', ''liberty'' and ''archer'', and the Saxon-derived ''folk'', ''freedom'' and ''bowman''. For more examples, see the [[list of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English]].

[[Loanword]]s are another rich source of synonyms, often from the language of the dominant culture of a region. Thus, most European languages have borrowed from Latin and ancient Greek, especially for technical terms, but the native terms continue to be used in non-technical contexts. In [[East Asian cultural sphere|East Asia]], borrowings from [[Chinese language|Chinese]] in [[Sino-Japanese vocabulary|Japanese]], [[Sino-Korean vocabulary|Korean]], and [[Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary|Vietnamese]] often exist alongside native words. In Islamic cultures, [[Arabic]] and [[Persian language|Persian]] are large sources of synonymous borrowings.

For example, in [[Turkish language|Turkish]], ''{{Lang|tr|kara}}'' and ''{{Lang|tr|siyah}}'' both mean 'black', the former being a native Turkish word, and the latter being a borrowing from Persian. In [[Ottoman Turkish language|Ottoman Turkish]], there were often three synonyms: water can be ''{{Lang|tr|su}}'' (Turkish), ''{{Lang|fa-latn|âb}}'' (Persian), or ''{{Lang|ar-latn|mâ}}'' (Arabic): "such a triad of synonyms exists in Ottoman for every meaning, without exception". As always with synonyms, there are nuances and shades of meaning or usage.<ref>Ziya Gökalp, ''The Principles of Turkism'', 1968, p. 78</ref>

In English, similarly, there often exist Latin (L) and Greek (Gk) terms synonymous with Germanic ones: ''thought'', ''notion'' (L), ''idea'' (Gk); ''ring'', ''circle'' (L), ''cycle'' (Gk). English often uses the Germanic term only as a noun, but has Latin and Greek adjectives: ''hand'', ''manual'' (L), ''chiral'' (Gk); ''heat'', ''thermal'' (L), ''caloric'' (Gk). Sometimes the Germanic term has become rare, or restricted to special meanings: ''tide'', ''time''/''temporal'', ''chronic''.<ref>Carl Darling Buck, ''A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages'', 1949, reprinted as {{isbn|0226079376}}</ref>

Many [[bound morphemes]] in English are borrowed from Latin and Greek and are synonyms for native words or morphemes: ''fish'', ''pisci-'' (L), ''ichthy-'' (Gk).

Another source of synonyms is [[neologism|coinage]]s, which may be motivated by [[linguistic purism]]. Thus, the English word ''foreword'' was coined to replace the Romance ''preface''. In Turkish, ''{{Lang|tr|okul}}'' was coined to replace the Arabic-derived ''mektep'' and ''mederese'', but those words continue to be used in some contexts.<ref>Geoffrey Lewis, ''The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success'', 1999, {{isbn|0198238568}}, p. 44, 70, 117</ref>