gerontonym

English

Etymology

From 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.