metonymy

Pronunciation

• IPA: /mɪˈtɒnəmi/ (UK); /mɪˈtɑnəmi/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin metonymia,^[2][3][4][5] perhaps partly through French métonymie,^[3][4] from Ancient Greek μετωνυμία (metōnumía, “change of name”),^{[2][3][4][6][5]} from Ancient Greek μετα- (meta-, “change”) + ὄνυμα (ónuma, “name”),^[2][3][4][6] ónuma being a dialect form of ónoma “name”.^[3][4] An earlier English form was metonomian (1547).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A figure of speech in which the name of something is replaced by the name of an attribute or of something closely associated with it (1547 in Merriam-Webster and the OED; 1562 in Barnhart).^[6][7][3]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed the same since the word was borrowed.^[7][2][6] Etymonline notes that it is often applied to places that stand for governments or institutions, such as the Porte for the Ottoman court (about 1600), Whitehall for the British civil service, and the Kremlin for the Russian government.^[4]

Timeline

• 1547 – metonomian, and the figure of speech.^[3][6][7]
• 1562 – metonymy.^[3]
• about 1600 – the Porte, an early example in English.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A figure of speech in which a word is replaced by another closely associated with it, as the crown for a monarch or Washington for the U.S. government.
2. A metonym, a word used in this way.

Word family

• metonymic
• metonymically
• metonym

Related words

• synecdoche
• metaphor
• synonym

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press