métonymie

Forms

métonymie f (plural métonymies)^[1] Middle French methonomie (1521); the learned spelling metonymie is recorded from 1690.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin metonymia (“naming, change of name”),^[2][4][1] which is from Ancient Greek μετωνυμία (metōnumía, “change of name”).^[1][5][6] The Greek word is formed of μετά (metá), expressing change, and ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”).^[4][7][8] Rey calls the Late Latin word a calque of the Greek, and notes that the Greek noun is related to Latin nōmen, the source of nom.^[3] Picoche places it in the family of an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *nom- (“name”), beside anonyme, homonyme and pseudonyme.^[9]

The first form, Middle French methonomie (1521), was remade on the Latin spelling in the 17th century, and the spelling ⟨metonymie⟩ is attested in 1690.^[3][2] The English word metonymy (1560s) comes from the French word and directly from Late Latin.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as methonomie in 1521, in P. Fabri's L'Art de rhétorique, as a term of rhetoric: the figure in which one word is put for another.^[2][7][3]

Semantic evolution

The word means literally “change of name”: the device of using one word for another to which it is tied by a logical relation, such as cause for effect or container for contents.^[3][6] Littré lists the classical kinds: cause for effect, effect for cause, container for contents, the place for the thing made there, the sign for the thing signified, and the abstract for the concrete.^[8] Montaigne already names it beside metaphor and allegory in the 16th century.^[8]

Since the Russian formalists, and especially Jakobson (about 1935), it names any figure that moves the sense from one signified to another linked to it by contiguity or logical dependence; it now tends to be paired with métaphore and to absorb neighbouring figures of rhetoric.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1521 – Methonomie appears in Fabri's L'Art de rhétorique.^[2][7]
• 16th century – Montaigne writes of metonomie beside metaphor and allegory.^[8]
• 1560s – English takes metonymy from French and Late Latin.^[10]
• 1690 – Furetière records the spelling metonymie.^[2][7]
• 1843 – The adjective métonymique is recorded (Proudhon).^[2][3]
• c. 1935 – Jakobson's work widens the term to any transfer by contiguity.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) metonymy: a figure of speech in which a thing is named by a word for another thing tied to it by a necessary relation (cause and effect, container and contents, sign and thing signified), as in boire une bouteille.^[6][2][1]
2. (linguistics) Any transfer of meaning from one concept to another linked to it by contiguity.^[2][3]
3. A word or phrase used in this way: une métonymie hardie dans ce poème.^[2]

Related words

• métonymique
• métaphore
• synecdoque
• homonymie
• paronymie
• nom
• Latin metonymia
• Ancient Greek μετωνυμία (metōnumía)
• English metonymy

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com