metonym

See also: Metonym

English

Etymology

Back-formation from metonymy.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈmɛtənɪm/
  • Homophone: metanym

Noun
Examples
  • crown (“sovereign in a monarchy”)
  • dish (“specific type of prepared food”)
  • tongue (“language”)
  • Washington (“US government”)

metonym (plural metonyms)

  1. (grammar) A word that names an object from a single characteristic of it or of a closely related object; a word used in metonymy.
    Calling a government "city hall" is using a metonym.
    • 1891 September 1, William Minto, “Practical talks on writing English”, in Theodor Flood, editor, The Chautauquan, volume 13, OCLC 752442901, pages 279–280:
      ...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 the metonym of putting "the container for the thing contained."
  2. (by extension) A concept, idea, or word used to represent, typify, or stand in for a broader set of ideas.
    • 2011, Geraldine Lawless, Modernity's Metonyms: Figuring Time in Nineteenth-century Spanish Stories, Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, →ISBN, page 155:
      Chapter 1, using the railway as a metonym, 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.

Synonyms

Hyponyms

Translations

See also

Danish

Etymology

Back-formation from metonymi.

Noun

metonym n (singular definite metonymet, plural indefinite metonymer)

  1. (grammar) metonym
    • 2011, Jan Krag Jacobsen, 29 spørgsmål, Samfundslitteratur (→ISBN), page 124
      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), page 133
      I Herman Bangs Stuk (1887) er den arkitektoniske stuk blot et udsnit af tidens pyntesyge overfladeliv bliver et metonym på samtiden.[sic]
      In Herman Bang's Stuk (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), page 250
      ... 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, ...

Inflection
Declension of metonym
neuter
gender		 Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative metonym metonymet metonymer metonymerne
genitive metonyms metonymets metonymers metonymernes
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