is a word or phrase that is used to stand in for another word. Sometimes a metonymy is chosen because it is a well-known characteristic of the word.
Examples:
- White House ->refers to the President and his staff. The building isn’t part of the President, it’s just closely related/associated.
- Pentagon -> refers to the military and civilian staffers. Again, the building isn’t part of them. The term’s just closely related.
- Hollywood -> We often refer to the film industry as Hollywood. However, not all of the film industry is in Hollywood.
Synecdoche
understanding one thing with another: the use of a part for the whole, or a whole for the part (a form of metonymy)
ANTONOMASIA
In rhetoric, the use of an epithet to acknowledge a quality in one person or place by using the name of another person or place already known for that quality (a form of metonymy)
Examples:
The Bard of Avon - William Shakespeare
The Little Corporal - Napoleon I
The Iron Lady - Margaret Thatcher
Purpose of a Metonymy
As with other literary devices, one of the main purposes of using a metonymy is to add flavor to the writing. Instead of just repeatedly saying, "the staff at the restaurant" or naming all of the elements of a dinner each time you want to refer to the meal, one word breaks up some of that awkwardness.
Using a metonymy serves a double purpose - it breaks up any awkwardness of repeating the same phrase over and over and it changes the wording to make the sentence more interesting.
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