mononymy

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Standardization of terms so that each entity has only one name.

   • ISO 704 and ISO 1087 prescribe mononymy as highly desirable for standardized terminologies, but as experience shows, individuals in developing disciplines (having unsettled terminology) are rarely able to agree on mononyms.
   • As for mononymy, in the context of standardization, the notion that a concept ought to have only one designation seemed both reasonable and desirable.
   • The emphasis here is on monosemy (one meaning per term) and one term per concept (which is commonly called mononymy, although this term is avoided in the standard, perhaps because it is less transparent).
2. 2

   The use of one-word names.

   • This new system, mononymy, would classify animals by means of a one-word taxon representing both genus and species in lieu of the binary system of two words, one for genus and the other for species.
   • Bailey even states that "we should have gained much in simplicity of literature, in clarity and in popular usage, if we had had a mononymy or other arrangement instead of a taxonomic dionymy."

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