Back-formation frommetonymy.
metonym (pluralmetonyms)
- (grammar) A word that names an object from a single characteristic of it or of a closely related object; a word used inmetonymy.
Calling a government a "city hall" is using ametonym.
1891 September, William Minto, “Practical talks on writing English”, in Theodor Flood, editor,The Chautauquan, volume13,→OCLC, pages279–280:...to say that "New York was thrown into a state of great excitement," when we mean the inhabitants of New York, is technically to use themetonym of putting "the container for the thing contained."
2014 November, Melanie Schulze Tanielian, “Feeding the city: The Beirut Municipality and the politics of food during World War I”, inInternational Journal of Middle East Studies, volume46, number 4,→JSTOR, pages737–758:She not only outlines the devastating effects ofseferberlik but also highlights the changing meaning of this term - as it acquired a civilian dimension in its Arabic rendition (safarbarlik) - and its potency as ametonym for the war as a whole.
2015 January 16, Rick Paulas, “The Linguistics of Tragedy”, inPacific Standard[1], archived fromthe original on22 April 2025:As you can tell, most tragedy-associatedmetonyms take on the location of the event as opposed to the time, possibly because our minds like to place horrific events in the past. We want to forget troubling events, so we reserve datemetonyms for things like weddings, anniversaries, or celebratory events like the Fourth of July (celebratory, at least, if you’re on the right side of history). But there is one huge exception: “9/11.”[…] Using ametonym like “New York City” or “Manhattan” rings hollow as to the geography. A date doesn’t have to deal with that issue.
- (by extension) Aconcept,idea, or word used to represent,typify, or stand in for a broader set of ideas.
- See also:symbol,model,microcosm,archetype,exemplar,proxy
2011, Geraldine Lawless,Modernity's Metonyms: Figuring Time in Nineteenth-century Spanish Stories, Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press,→ISBN, page155:Chapter 1, using the railway as ametonym, explored the relationship between past and present, and argued that diachronic, or historical, time was dissolved in the proliferation of present moments, or synchronic time.
Ametonym may be exemplified by a single word or by aphrase equally. An example of the metonymic phrase is evidenced in the sentence"Major Taylor had to battle discrimination both on and off the bike", wherein the phrases"on the bike" and"off the bike" are metonymic. It would be absurd to think that Major Taylor was doing anything while on his bike, other than trying to win whichever race he was involved in. The suggestion, then, that Taylor battled discrimination "on the bike" clearly means that he had to battle discrimination "in the pursuit of his athletic career", and so is an example of metonymy.
word that names an object from a single characteristic of it
Back-formation frommetonymi.
metonym n (singular definitemetonymet,plural indefinitemetonymer)
- (grammar)metonym
2011, Jan Krag Jacobsen,29 spørgsmål, Samfundslitteratur,→ISBN, page124:Den lille trailer[…] blev[…] brugt som et metonym for sort arbejde.- The little trailer […] was […] used as a metonym for undeclared work.
2010,Krydsfelt Grundbog i Dansk, Gyldendal Uddannelse,→ISBN, page133:I Herman BangsStuk (1887) er den arkitektoniske stuk blot et udsnit af tidens pyntesyge overfladeliv bliver et metonym på samtiden.[sic]- In Herman Bang'sStuk (1887), the architectural stucco is only a slice of the gaudy surface life of the time becomes a metonym of the time.[sic]
2011, Thomas Wiben Jensen,Kognition og konstruktion: to tendenser i humaniora og den offentlige debat, Samfundslitteratur,→ISBN, page250:... en tendens til at bruge hjernen som et metonym for ens personlighed, ...- ... a tendency to use the brain as a metonym for one's personality, ...
- IPA(key): /mɛtɔˈnyːm/,/mɛtʊˈnyːm/
metonym c
- (linguistics)metonym
