ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Evgeniya Nikolaevna Varnikova
Vologda Branch of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, Vologda, Russia

ON ZOONYMIC TERMINOLOGY

For citation
Varnikova, E. N. (2026). On Zoonymic Terminology. Voprosy onomastiki, 23(1), 74–98. https://doi.org/10.15826/vopr_onom.2026.23.1.003

Received on 18 April 2025
Accepted on 10 September 2025

Abstract: In Russian linguistics, the term zoonym, introduced into scholarly use in the 1960s, was formed according to a productive onomastic model and serves as the key term for a distinct branch of onomastics — zoonymics, the study of animal names and of the patterns governing their emergence, development, and functioning. At present, however, zoonymics remains one of the least developed areas of onomastic research when compared with other branches, most notably toponymy and anthroponymy. The lack of sustained development in this field, together with the inconsistent use of the term zoonym in its proper sense, has influenced the way it is employed in contemporary linguistic scholarship. The article examines the use of this traditional onomastic term in modern Russian linguistic literature. It highlights the increasingly widespread and largely unjustified expansion of the term’s semantic scope and argues for the need to coordinate and standardise its usage. According to linguistic dictionaries, zoonym has a single established meaning — ‘a type of proper name; the proper name (nickname) of an animal’. Nevertheless, the term is increasingly applied to common nouns denoting animals. Such usage inevitably complicates its application in its proper sense, as it leads to the confusion of onyms and appellatives, which differ in many respects and therefore require different methodological approaches to their analysis and description. It also blurs the boundaries and composition of zoonymy and disrupts the systemic relationships within onomastic terminology. The article further discusses the prospects for the development and use of more specific zoonymic terms, which have begun to appear with increasing frequency in recent studies in this field. Particular attention is given to the priority of developing such terms for the designation of the names of domestic animals belonging to species traditionally common in Russia.

Keywords: onomastic terminology; coordination of onomastic terminology; zoonym; zoonymy; zoonymicon; zoonymic studies; specific zoonymic terms

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