synecdoche
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from Latin synecdochē, from Ancient Greek συνεκδοχή (sunekdokhḗ, “receiving together”) from σύν (sún, “with”) + ἐκ (ek, “out of”) + δέχεσθαι (dékhesthai, “to accept”), this last element related to δοκέω (dokéō, “to think, suppose, seem”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
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synecdoche (countable and uncountable, plural synecdoches)
- (rhetoric) A figure of speech that uses the name of a part of something to represent the whole, or the whole to represent a part.
- Hyponyms: pars pro toto, totum pro parte
- Hypernym: metonymy
- 2002 Sep, Christopher Hitchens, “Martin Amis: Lightness at Midnight”, in The Atlantic:
- "Holocaust" can become a tired synecdoche for war crimes in general.
- 2017 May 17, Dorian Lynskey, “The 20-year-old black mirror that reflects the world today”, in BBC.com Culture[1]:
- Perhaps being in a touring band was, to Yorke, a synecdoche for the modern condition: disorientation, alienation, rootlessness, exhaustion, lack of control, occasional derangement, constant motion.
- (rhetoric) The use of this figure of speech.
- Synonym: synecdochy
Usage notesEdit
Technically, a synecdoche is a part of the referent while a metonym is connected or associated but not necessarily a part of it.
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
figure of speech that uses the name of a part of something to represent the whole
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See alsoEdit
Further readingEdit
- synecdoche on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
DutchEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Latin synecdoche, from Ancient Greek συνεκδοχή (sunekdokhḗ, “receiving together”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
synecdoche f (plural synecdoches, diminutive synecdochetje n)