Greek
etymology of the name of the notorious
Necronomicon as appeared to
H.P. Lovecraft in a dream, as recounted in a letter to
Harry O. Fischer in February, 1937: "The name Necronomicon (
necros,
corpse;
nomos,
law;
eikon,
image = An Image (or Picture) of the Law of the Dead) occurred to me in the course of a
dream, although the etymology is perfectly sound."
Perhaps some slumbering telepathic entity was causing interference in his dreamings from watery R'lyeh, but S. A. T. Haldane (at sah@dl.ac.uk) provides a more perfectly sound translation delivered in a state of awake lucidity:
Nekros/nekr-o- (noun) "dead (person)"
nomos/nom-o- (noun) "law", "custom"
-ikos/-ike/-ikon (adjectival suffix) "to do with", "concerning",
hence nekr-o- + nom-o- + -ikos > nekronomikos (adjective) "concerning the customs of the dead." Functioning as a noun in the neutral gender, the Nekronomikon becomes "(The Thing) Concerning the Customs of the Dead."