A friend sent me this inquiry. I dunno, but I thought you all might:
“Is there a word in English that describes a word whose connotation matches the physical appearance (not sound) of the word? Eg., short or bit. I can’t think of other examples, other than maybe megamassive”
lowercase
That’d be a useful additional example, but not the name of the category of words.
Do you mean visual onomatopoeia? The word looks like what it means?
Cool concept, but I don’t know if there is a real word for it.
Of course, self-descriptive would be clearer, but not as much fun.
I think autological (words that describe themselves) is the word you’re looking for. The opposite is heterological (words that do not describe themselves).
Examples of autological words: short, polysyllabic, lowercase, English, visible
Examples of heterological words: long, monosyllabic, green, Swahili, stinky
There’s a paradox associated with these words: Does the word “heterological” describe itself?
If it does, then it is autological, and therefore does not describe itself.
If it does not, then it is heterological and therefore does describe itself.
(Damn you TWDuke!)
Thank you! I’ll pass it on.