Talk:-nomicon

RFV discussion: December 2021

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-nomicon

Forming book names (from Necronomicon). It actually feels more like a blend than a suffix, so perhaps should be at RFD. Anyway my attempts to find citations by sticking various popular nouns on it were useless. Equinox ◑ 14:39, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

FWIW, Onelook finds some words which end in nomicon, of which the following get at least one Google Books hit: Astronomicon (title of a particular real-world work or two), The Brightonomicon (a particular real-world book), Codenomicon (particular real-world company and/or program/product), Cryptonomicon (particular real-world book; one Google Books hit for an apparent plural is just the possessive, Cryptonomicon's), Cyphernomicon (real-world book), Demonomicon (fictional book in DnD? also the title of a real-world DnD book), Draconomicon (DnD book), google books:"Electronomicon", Funkcronomicon (real-world album), Citations:homonomicon, Negronomicon (Google Books results are apparently scannos/typos, online it's a book of African stuff), Neonomicon (real-world book). Whether to view any of this as supporting a suffix or just blends, I'm unsure. BTW I also spotted one citation of Citations:nomicon. - -sche (discuss) 16:15, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

It certainly seems productive. Was Cryptonomicon the modern-times popularizer of the suffix, probably taking it from Astronomicon (1st century CE) or Necronomicon (1977, 1980) or did he go back to Ancient Greek νομικός (nomikós, “relating to laws”)? DCDuring (talk) 17:00, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

I would've guessed modern uses including Cryptonomicon were inspired by the Necronomicon, but I could be wrong. Do dates show any (other than the ancient Astronomicon) to predate Necronomicon? Tamara Green's 2003 The Greek & Latin Roots of English (→ISBN), page 55, has "-nomicon" as a Greek suffix, but says the English analogue is -nomic and forms adjectives, i.e. Green is not discussing this suffix. I found more cites of bare "nomicon" as a noun, one of which [the Eleunomicon] also says "-nomicon" is a suffix, but it seems to be of low enough quality that I might not put much weight on its opinion as to POS. Nomicon is also the title of various older works, alone or in spaced compounds like Nomicon Prochiron (or unspaced compounds like Economicon), which could perhaps have influenced modern unspaced compounds. - -sche (discuss) 20:28, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

There's also the fictional Mahit'onomicon (although the apostrophe does make that one look more like a blend, or at least not a suffix -nomicon per se), The Pseudonomicon (sold on Amazon), and The Eschatanomicon (the last of which uses a different linking vowel). As DCDuring says, it seems productive, perhaps enough so to view it as a suffix, although it's hard to rule out that they're blends. - -sche (discuss) 21:18, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 07:21, 23 December 2021 (UTC)