Metonymy

Literary/ Cultural Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)
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  • The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

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A figure of speech in which a word referring to one attribute of something is used to signify the whole of the thing. For example “the crown” is used to signify “the monarchy”, and in the expression “he's taken to the bottle” one means “he's taken to drinking”. The difference between metonymy and synechdoche (q.v.) is fine: metonymy is relatively abstract and ideational whereas synecdoche is more material and physical (“sails” for “boats”).

74 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Metonymy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=722, accessed 19 March 2024.]

722 Metonymy 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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