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)

(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 a "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."
- 2014 November, Melanie Schulze Tanielian, “Feeding the city: The Beirut Municipality and the politics of food during World War I”, in International Journal of Middle East Studies, volume 46, number 4, JSTOR 43303224, pages 737-758:
  She not only outlines the devastating effects of seferberlik but also highlights the changing meaning of this term - as it acquired a civilian dimension in its Arabic rendition (safar barlik) - and its potency as a metonym for the war as a whole.
(by extension) A concept, 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, 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

synonym

Hyponyms

synecdoche (rhetoric)

Derived terms

metonymous
metonymic
metonymically
metonymy

Translations

word that names an object from a single characteristic of it

Armenian: փոխանուն (hy) (pʿoxanun)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 轉喻／转喻 (zhuǎnyù)
Danish: metonym n
Dutch: metoniem (nl)
Finnish: metonyymi (fi)
French: métonyme (fr) m
German: Metonym n
Japanese: 換喩語 (かんゆご, kan'yugo)
Macedonian: метоним m (metonim)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: metonym n
Portuguese: metônimo f
Russian: метони́м (ru) m (metoním)
Spanish: metónimo m
Swedish: metonym (sv) c
Vietnamese: hoán dụ (vi)

Danish

Etymology

Back-formation from metonymi.

Noun

metonym n (singular definite metonymet, plural indefinite metonymer)

(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
neuter gender	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	metonym	metonymet	metonymer	metonymerne
genitive	metonyms	metonymets	metonymers	metonymernes

Swedish

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /mɛtɔˈnyːm/, /mɛtʊˈnyːm/

Noun

metonym c

(linguistics) metonym

Declension

Declension of metonym
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	metonym	metonymen	metonymer	metonymerna
Genitive	metonyms	metonymens	metonymers	metonymernas