Definition:
A word or phrase used in place of another with which it is closely associated. Adjective: metonymic. See also:
Etymology:
Back-formation from metonymy: from the Greek, "change of name"Examples and Observations:
- "The part that is chosen to be a metonym of its whole is not arbitrary. Such a part must be in some sense outstanding, easily recognizable, and play a unique role in the whole. . . . A steering wheel would be a good metonym for driving, a violin a good metonym for a classical orchestra, bread a good metonym for a baker's shop, a file folder a good metonym for organizing documents in a computer.
"Metonyms provide the basis for a human-centered theory of signs. Traffic signs, for examples, might employ pictograms of the road, a car, bicycle, or pedestrian, but they do not represent anything beyond the part-whole relationship."
(Klaus Krippendorff, The Semantic Turn, CRC Press, 2006) - "[M]etonyms seem so natural that they are easily taken for granted, and we fail to realize that another metonym might give a very different picture of the same whole. A militantly protesting striker and a bored cold striker are both part of the same picket line, but they may be represented as significantly different metonyms."
(Tim O'Sullivan, Key Concepts in Communication, Taylor & Francis, 1983) - "A metonym is the application of a mere attribute of an object to the whole object. For instance many Londoners call their city 'The Smoke.' Smoke used to be a characteristic part of the London scene, resulting in the smogs which were called (metaphorically) 'pea-soupers.' It came to signify the city as a whole, but this time the relationship between the signifier (Smoke) and its signified (London) is contiguous rather than asserted."
(John Fiske and John Hartley, Reading Television, Routledge, 1978)
Pronunciation: MET-eh-nim
