metonymy

noun [məˈtɑnəmi]

pronunciation

Editorial IPA: Webster 1913 stress Me*ton\"y*my (primary on ton); onset mə- as in CMU metropolis; -ˈɑnəmi aligned with CMU economy / astronomy through pipeline/ipa-en.mjs; full lemma metonymy missing in CMUdict; confirm at review, open source

Metonymy is a trope that lets a contiguous label stand in (Virgil for the poems, the capital for the government), beside metaphor, apart from meronymy in the lexicon.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Definitions

ling. / rhet. Rhetorical and stylistic figure: a proper name yields to another linked by contiguity (author for text, capital for government, glass for vessel). The axis is neighbourhood in experience, not likeness of image (metaphor) and not the part-whole link in the lexicon alone (meronymy).

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
hist. lex. Webster 1913 indexes METONYMY (stress Me*ton\"y*my) plus matching adjective cards at that lemma; a trope in which one word stands for another that suggests it (good table for provisions; Virgil for poems). Skeat 1910: METONYMY. Arct 1921: Metonimja / Metonymja. Brückner 1927: no card.

source
Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (METONYMY Me*ton\"y*my; adjective cards); W. W. Skeat 1910 (METONYMY); M. Arct 1921 (Metonimja; Metonymja); A. Brückner 1927 (no metonim), open source
hist. / ety. Morphology: Gk. μετά (Skeat META-: change in compounds) fused with ὄνομα (name; cognate with E. name). Skeat: L. metonymia = Gk. μετωνυμία. Webster points to Name. Seminar axis: contiguity; synecdoche is a classic neighbour still without its own card here.

source
Editorial team; facts: W. W. Skeat 1910 (META-: Gk. μετά; METONYMY: μετωνυμία / μετά + ὄνομα); Webster 1913 (METONYMY; META-; See Name), open source
colloq. Casual speech may stretch the label over a transferred sense or over a trope that never names an axis. This card keeps a single axis: name replacement under contiguity, neither likeness (metaphor) nor the bare part label in the lexicon (meronym).

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Examples

Reading Virgil as a label for the poems is a textbook metonymy; a neighbour wrongly slotted metaphor into the same drill.

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Morning lab covered metonymy; notes kept synecdoche aside, and the afternoon clinic moved on to lexical meronymy.

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Reading list: Webster 1913 for METONYMY / METONYMIC / METONYMICAL, Skeat 1910 for META- and METONYMY, Arct 1921 (Metonimja / Metonymja), Brückner 1927 (gap at metonim).

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Calling every metonymy a looser metaphor wiped the contiguity-versus-likeness axis at once.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Board order: metonymy, then metaphor, then meronym and rhetoric, so contiguity stayed apart from likeness and from the lexical part-whole tag.

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Usage

Loose talk may treat metonymy as figurative speech with no stated axis. Seminar practice peels layers apart: contiguity (author, place, material), metaphor as foil, the border with synecdoche, plus lexicon notes from open books. Webster keeps the noun METONYMY with matching adjective cards. Skeat keeps META- and METONYMY with Gk. μετωνυμία. Arct indexes Metonimja and Metonymja. Brückner offers no Polish card. Without those layers only a hollow slogan about figurative speech remains.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Record from open books: the 1913 Webster shows the noun METONYMY with stress Me*ton\"y*my and keeps matching adjective cards; the trope puts one word for another that suggests it. Skeat 1910 under METONYMY keeps Gk. μετωνυμία (μετά + ὄνομα) and the derivatives metonym-ic-al; under META- he keeps Gk. μετά (often change in compounds). Arct 1921 carries Metonimja and Metonymja with author-for-work and place-for-people examples. Brückner 1927 leaves metonim out. Facts in this block; derivation in etymology.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (METONYMY; METONYMIC; METONYMICAL); W. W. Skeat 1910 (METONYMY; META-); M. Arct 1921 (Metonimja; Metonymja); A. Brückner 1927 (absent), open source

In scholarly English the tag marks name replacement under contiguity. Careful writers reject worksheets that treat every trope as a metaphor and reject glosses that never name the contiguity axis. Where metonymy ends and synecdoche begins stays contested. Lab founding years stay empty until a primary page appears. Polish counterpart: metonimia.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Classrooms revisit contiguity talk and set metonymy against metaphor, rhetoric, and semantics. Adjectives in notes: metonymic / metonymical (Webster 1913 prints METONYMIC and METONYMICAL; absent in CMUdict). Polish counterpart metonimia sits in SGJP. Already live: metaphor, rhetoric, semantics, meronym, holonym, synonym, antonym, polysemy. Without the contiguity axis the tag collapses.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (METONYMY; METONYMIC; METONYMICAL); CMUdict (metonymy/metonymical absent); SGJP / Morfeusz 2 (metonimia present); M. Arct 1921 (Metonimja; Metonymja), open source

Word forms

Scholarly countable or mass in notes: one metonymy, many metonymies (or mass metonymy). Adjectives in notes: metonymic, metonymical (Webster 1913: METONYMIC; METONYMICAL; not in CMUdict). Related noun in some handbooks: metonym (label for the substituting word; not printed as a separate Webster head beside METONYMY in the 1913 set we checked).

forms in use

przypadek	forma
singular	metonymy
plural	metonymies
adjective	metonymic (Webster 1913: METONYMIC; not in CMUdict)
adjective (alt.)	metonymical (Webster 1913: METONYMICAL; not in CMUdict)

Word forms: Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (METONYMY; METONYMIC; METONYMICAL); CMUdict (metonymy / metonymical absent) · source

Collocations

rhetorical metonymy

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metonymic relation

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metonymy versus metaphor

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contiguity rather than likeness

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
distinguish metonymy from meronymy

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Synonyms · Antonyms

Synonyms name replacement under contiguity (loose descriptive neighbour; check scope at review), metonymic trope (approximation; check scope at review), metonimia (Polish counterpart; SGJP present; check scope at review)

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Antonyms metaphor (foil along the likeness axis; check scope at review), literal naming without a trope (contextual contrast; not a clean antonym of the label alone), meronymy as a lexical relation (contrast neighbour: part-whole in the lexicon, not a figure; check at review)

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Etymology

Metonymy fuses Gk. μετά (often change in compounds; Skeat: META-) with the ὄνομα nest (name). Skeat 1910 under META- derives Gk. μετά; under METONYMY he keeps L. metonymia = Gk. μετωνυμία (μετά + ὄνομα, cognate with E. name) and the derivatives metonym-ic-al. The 1913 Webster prints METONYMY (Me*ton\"y*my) and points to Name; META- is a combining form from Greek; adjective cards sit beside the noun. Arct (9th ed., 1921) indexes Metonimja and Metonymja. Brückner 1927 skips a Polish lemma. We do not copy dictionary wording. Polish counterpart: metonimia.

source

W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910 (META-: Gk. μετά; METONYMY: μετωνυμία / μετά + ὄνομα), open source

also

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (METONYMY: Me*ton\"y*my; adjective cards; META-), open source

also

M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921 (Metonimja; Metonymja), open source

also

A. Brückner, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, Kraków 1927 (no metonim), open source

Related words

metonymic , field adjective (Webster 1913: METONYMIC; CMUdict silent)
metonymical , field adjective (Webster 1913: METONYMICAL; CMUdict silent)
metaphor , foil along the likeness axis; EN pair already live
rhetoric , domain of tropes; EN pair already live
semantics , sense and transfer neighbour; EN pair already live
meronym , contrast neighbour: part axis in the lexicon, not a figure; EN pair already live
holonym , whole axis in the lexicon; EN pair already live
polysemy , several linked senses in one unit; EN pair already live
synonym , near-sense unit without a trope axis; EN pair already live
antonym , opposed-sense unit; EN pair already live
metonimia , Polish counterpart (SGJP present; Arct: Metonimja/Metonymja; Webster: METONYMY/METONYMIC/METONYMICAL)

Related entries

The same entry in Polish: metonimia

Questions and answers

What does metonymy mean?

It names a figure: the proper label yields to another linked by neighbourhood in experience (writer for text, capital for power, glass for vessel). Metaphor needs likeness. Meronymy is a lexical part-whole relation, not a trope. Synecdoche (part for whole as a figure) is a classic neighbour.

source

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Where does the word metonymy come from?

Gk. μετά (change in compounds) plus ὄνομα (name). Skeat 1910 shows META- and METONYMY (μετωνυμία). Webster 1913 prints the noun METONYMY marked Me*ton\"y*my, with matching adjective cards. Arct 1921 indexes Metonimja and Metonymja. Brückner 1927 stays quiet.

source

Editorial team; facts: W. W. Skeat 1910 (META-; METONYMY); Webster 1913 (METONYMY; METONYMIC; METONYMICAL); M. Arct 1921 (Metonimja; Metonymja); A. Brückner 1927 (absent), open source

How is metonymy pronounced, and which forms belong with it?

Editorial /məˈtɑnəmi/ follows Webster Me*ton\"y*my (stress on ton), with mə- as in CMU metropolis and -ˈɑnəmi aligned with economy / astronomy; CMUdict has no full lemma (pipeline/ipa-en.mjs). Forms: metonymy, metonymies, metonymic, metonymical. Confirm at review.

source

Editorial team; facts: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary via pipeline/ipa-en.mjs (lemma absent; metropolis mə-; economy / astronomy -ˈɑnəmi); Webster 1913 (METONYMY Me*ton\"y*my), open source

How does metonymy differ from metaphor, meronymy, and synecdoche, and does Polish metonimia match?

Metonymy: contiguity. Metaphor: likeness. Meronymy: part-whole in the lexicon, not a figure. Synecdoche: part for whole (or reverse) as a trope; neighbour still without a card here. Polish metonimia matches (SGJP present). Notes draw borders; casual speech blurs them.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)