Nym Word Game

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett, and we’re joined by our quiz guy, our funny man, John Chaneski.

Hello, John.

Hello, Grant. Hello, Martha.

Hi, John.

What do you got? You got a quiz there? Something for us to play? A game?

Let’s talk about NIM. N-Y-M.

The fact is there are enough kinds of word types ending in N-Y-M, NIM, that I can quiz you guys about it.

And I’ll give you an example of a NIM.

Like, hot is an example of this type of NIM.

Vis-a-vis cold.

Oh, antonym.

Right, antonym.

Very simple.

All these NIM words.

I call this quiz the secrets of NIMs.

Okay, great.

For those of you who have little kids, you probably know what I’m talking about.

Or read that as a child, right?

Or read the book, right?

Yeah.

Here we go.

The first one is pole, P-O-L-E.

Pole vis-a-vis Poland is an example of what type of NIM?

Phononym.

No.

Demonym?

Yeah, demonym.

Oh, I see.

Okay, got it.

Good.

Here we go.

In Alcoholics Anonymous, the word denial is said to stand for, don’t even notice I am lying.

This is an example of what type of NIM?

It’s an acronym.

Sort of.

It’s a type of acronym, a specific type of acronym.

Oh.

It’s not an initialism.

No.

Yeah, but it doesn’t really mean that, but they went back and made it mean.

Oh, backronym, yeah.

It’s a backronym, right.

Okay.

How about the term AWOL is an example of what type of NIM?

Okay, that’s an acronym.

Yes, that’s an acronym.

Do you know the difference between an acronym and an initialism?

Yes, I do.

I don’t know.

Let me put in my pin number.

Sure, an acronym is one that can be pronounced as a word.

Initialism is the one where you say the letters.

So IBM is an initialism, and acronym would be AWOL.

AWOL, right, or NASA is an acronym.

Very good.

Thank you.

How about this next one?

Mark Twain is an example of what type of NIM?

Pseudonym.

A pseudonym, yes.

How about acoustic guitar is an example of what type of NIM?

Ooh, I love it.

Retronym.

Yes, a retronym.

Would anybody care to explain what a retronym is?

Yes, because when the electric guitar came around, you no longer just had a plain little guitar.

You had to specify that you meant the non-electric kind, so you made it an acoustic guitar.

You had to go back, retro, retro the word guitar to make it acoustic guitar.

Very good.

Here’s the next one.

An editor named Daly and a unionist named Foreman are examples of what type of NIM?

I love these.

We do these on the show occasionally, right?

Sure.

We call them, well, there’s a bunch of different names, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, there’s a couple.

Approponyms or something like that.

Oh, aptronyms?

Yes, aptronyms.

Aptronyms, too, yeah.

Okay, here’s the next one.

Overlord vis-a-vis the Battle of Normandy is an example of what type of nym?

Good question.

It’s more commonly known as codename.

Yeah.

But there’s a nym word for it.

I don’t know.

I can’t think of it.

Kryptonim?

Yes, a kryptonim.

Very good.

Very good, yes.

Let’s try this one.

Madonna is an example of what type of nym?

Pseudonym, stage nym.

I don’t know.

But specifically, like Plato, like Socrates.

Oh, because it’s one word?

Yeah.

Oh.

Mononym?

Yes, mononym.

Really?

Yes, it’s a mononym.

Good.

Here’s the last one.

Crown is an example of what type of nym?

This is a tough one.

Metonym.

Yeah, metonym or metonymy means a part used to represent the whole.

For instance, the crown is part of a monarch, so the crown represents the monarch.

Nice.

You guys did fantastic.

Nice work on the secrets of nims.

Thank you.

And, you know, when the quiz guy questions us about language terms, we better show up.

You did.

You represented.

You certainly did.

We didn’t show off, but we showed up.

Thanks, John.

That was pretty cool.

Thanks, Grant.

Thanks, Martha.

Always glad to have you on the show.

Same here.

If you have a question about wordplay, language, grammar, slang, regional dialects,

Call us 877-929-9673.

Or you can send an email to words@waywordradio.org.