Definition:
A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the general, the general for the specific, or the material for the thing made from it. Considered by some to be a form of metonymy. Adjective: synecdochic or synecdochal.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "shared understanding"Examples and Observations:
- "The sputtering economy could make the difference if you're trying to get a deal on a new set of wheels."
(Al Vaughters, WIVB.com, November 21, 2008) - All hands on deck.
- General Motors announced cutbacks.
- "Take thy face hence."
(William Shakespeare, Macbeth) - 9/11
- "And let us mind, faint heart n'er wan
A lady fair."
(Robert Burns, "To Dr. Blalock") - white-collar criminals
- "In photographic and filmic media a close-up is a simple synecdoche--a part representing the whole. . . . Synecdoche invites or expects the viewer to 'fill in the gaps' and advertisements frequently employ this trope."
(Daniel Chandler, Semiotics: The Basics, Routledge, 2002) - Give us this day our daily bread.
- "The daily press, the immediate media, is superb at synecdoche, at giving us a small thing that stands for a much larger thing."
(Bruce Jackson) - Brazil won the soccer match.
- "And the Stratocaster guitars slung over
Burgermeister beer guts, and the swizzle stick legs
jackknifed over Naugahyde stools . . .."
(Tom Waits, "Putnam County") - "It's true that there's something sad about the fact that David Leavitt's short stories' sole description of some characters is that their T-shirts have certain brand names on them. . . . In our post-1950s, inseparable-from-TV association pool, brand loyalty really is synecdochic of character."
(David Foster Wallace, "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction," The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1993)
Pronunciation: si-NEK-di-key
Also Known As: intellectio, quick conceit
