Flashcards: Lexicology

A colloquialism is a word, phrase, or other form used in informal language.

In linguistics, a calque (/ˈkælk/) or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word, or root-for-root translation.

An acronym is a word or name formed as an abbreviation from the initial components in a phrase or a word, usually individual letters (as in NATO or laser) and sometimes syllables (as in Benelux).

In linguistics, a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings, whether spelled the same or not.

A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word adopted from one language (the donor language) and incorporated into a different, recipient language without translation.

A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers, for rhetorical effect, to one thing by mentioning another thing.

A synonym is a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language.

In linguistics, a collective noun is a word which refers to a collection of things taken as a whole.

Meronymy (from Greek μέρος meros, "part" and ὄνομα onoma, "name") is a semantic relation specific to linguistics, distinct from the similar meronomy.

In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs big : small, long : short, and precede : follow.

Polysemy (/pəˈlɪsᵻmi/ or /ˈpɒlᵻsiːmi/; from Greek: πολυ-, poly-, "many" and σῆμα, sêma, "sign") is the capacity for a sign (such as a word, phrase, or symbol) to have multiple meanings (that is, multiple semes or sememes and thus multiple senses), usually related by contiguity of meaning within a semantic field.

In language, an archaism (from the Ancient Greek: ἀρχαϊκός, archaïkós, 'old-fashioned, antiquated', ultimately ἀρχαῖος, archaîos, 'from the beginning, ancient') is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current or that is current only within a few special contexts.

An Anglicism may refer to * a) a word or construction peculiar to the English language * b) a word or construction borrowed from English into another language * c) English syntax, grammar, or meaning transposed in another language resulting in incorrect language use or incorrect translation.

A Germanism is a loan word or other loan element borrowed from German for use in some other language.

In linguistics, sound symbolism, phonesthesia or phonosemantics is the idea that vocal sounds or phonemes carry meaning in and of themselves.

An abbreviation (from Latin brevis, meaning short) is a shortened form of a word or phrase.

Denotation is a translation of a sign to its meaning, precisely to its literal meaning, more or less like dictionaries try to define it.

A plurale tantum (Latin for "plural only", plural form: pluralia tantum) is a noun that appears only in the plural form and does not have a singular variant for referring to a single object.

In chemistry, a trivial name is a nonsystematic name for a chemical substance.