Also 6–9 synonimy, 7–9 synonomy. [ad. late L. synōnymia, a. Gr. συνωνυμία, f. συνώνυμος SYNONYM. Cf. F. synonymie, etc.]
† 1. = SYNONYM 1. Obs.
1609. R. Barnerd, Faithf. Sheph., 27. One word signifying many things, Homonymies: many words signifying againe one thing, Synonymies.
1659. Torriano, Sinónimo, a Sinonimie.
1730. M. Wright, Introd. Law Tenures, 179. Feud, Fee, and Tenure, are Synonimies, and import but one and the same Policy.
1799. J. Scott, Bahar-Danush, Pref. p. iii. The synonymies and compound epithets so abundant in eastern description.
† b. loosely. A thing of the same name: = HOMONYM 2. Obs.
1612. Selden, Illustr. Drayton’s Poly-olb., ii. 34. We hauing three riuers of note synonymies with her [sc. Isis].
2. The use of synonyms or of words as synonyms; spec. a rhetorical figure by which synonyms are used for the sake of amplification.
[1586. A. Day, Engl. Secretorie, II. (1625), 91. Synonimia, when we bring forth many words together of one signification, or sounding to one purpose.
1589. Puttenham, Engl. Poesie, III. xix. (Arb.), 223. When so euer we multiply our speech by many words or clauses of one sence, the Greekes call it Sinonimia, as who would say, like or consenting names.]
1657. J. Smith, Myst. Rhet., 159. A Synonymie is a commodious heaping together of divers words of one signification.
1880. Massie in Expositor, XI. 147. Ahaz, King of Israel, makes υἱὸς equivalent to δοῦλος…. Such sycophantic synonymy St. Paul absolutely repudiates.
3. The subject or study of synonyms; synonyms collectively, a set of synonyms. a. in grammar.
1683. Weekly Memorials, 15 Jan., 375. The Synonomie or several Names to the same sense.
1794. Mrs. Piozzi (title), British Synonymy; or, an attempt at regulating the choice of words in familiar conversation.
1837. Hallam, Lit. Eur., I. iii. § 8. The distinctions in Latin syntax, inflexion, and synonymy.
1908. A. Deissmann, in Expositor, Jan., 73. It is still the best work on New Testament synonymy.
b. in natural history: see SYNONYM 1 b.
1781. Phil. Trans., LXXI. 438. Artedi, in his account of this species, has adopted the synonymy of Schonevelde, who describes a fish under the name of Ophidion imberbe flavum.
1785. Martyn, Lett. Bot., Introd. (1794), 6. A Synonymy, or exact list of the names that every plant bore in all the writers which preceded them.
1854. Woodward, Mollusca, II. 162. The synonymy of the genus would fill several pages.
1877. H. Saunders, in Proc. Zool. Soc. (1878), 156. The comparative simplicity of the synonymy of the Sterninæ.
1887. W. Phillips, Brit. Discomycetes, 241. Dr. Cooke has pointed out the fact that two different species have been included by authors under this name…. The synonymy is rendered somewhat uncertain by this fact.
4. The quality or fact of being synonymous; identity of meaning; synonymousness.
1794. Mrs. Piozzi, Synon., I. 182. Yet would such a transposition be no proof of their synonymy.
1815. Paris Chit-chat (1816), II. 102. A … philologer established the synonimy of the words repress and prevent.
1857. H. H. Breen, Mod. Eng. Lit., 86. Soane … will have it that Spenser intended the particle ‘or’ to express synonymy.
