Definition:
A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty"). Metonymy is also the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it, such as describing someone's clothing to characterize the individual. Adjective: metonymic. See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "change of name"Examples & Observations:
- "Detroit is still hard at work on an SUV that runs on rain forest trees and panda blood."
(Conan O'Brien) - "Metonymy is common in cigarette advertising in countries where legislation prohibits depictions of the cigarettes themselves or of people using them."
(Daniel Chandler, Semiotics, Routledge, 2007) - "I stopped at a bar and had a couple of double Scotches. They didn't do me any good. All they did was make me think of Silver Wig, and I never saw her again."
(Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep) - "Many standard items of vocabulary are metonymic. A red-letter day is important, like the feast days marked in red on church calendars. . . . On the level of slang, a redneck is a stereotypical member of the white rural working class in the Southern U.S., originally a reference to necks sunburned from working in the fields."
(Connie Eble, "Metonymy," The Oxford Companion to the English Language, 1992) - The White House asked the television networks for air time on Monday night.
- "Whitehall prepares for a hung parliament."
(The Guardian, January 1, 2009) - The suits on Wall Street walked off with most of our savings.
- "The B.L.T. left without paying."
(waitress referring to a customer) - "Metaphor creates the relation between its objects, while metonymy presupposes that relation."
(Hugh Bredin, "Metonymy," Poetics Today, 1984)
Pronunciation: me-TON-uh-me
Also Known As: denominatio, misnamer, transmutation
