Demonym (; δῆμος
dẽmos 'people, tribe', ὄνομα
ónoma 'name') is a word to identify residents or natives of a particular place, which is
derived from the name of that particular place. It is a recently minted term; previously,
gentilic was used by the Oxford English Dictionary. Examples of demonyms include
Chinese for the natives of
China,
Swahili for the natives of the
Swahili coast, and
American for the natives of the
United States of America (or sometimes for the natives of
the Americas). Just as
Americans may refer to two different groups of natives, some particular groups of people may be referred to by multiple demonyms. For example, the natives of the
United Kingdom are the
British, or the
Britons. In English, demonyms are
capitalized. In languages other than English, a parallel demonym sometimes does not exist, which may lead to the use of an English demonym as a nickname or descriptive adjective of a group of people. The term has not been adopted by the Oxford English Dictionary or the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
