synecdoche
Mar. 12th, 2010 07:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordsynecdoche (si-NEK-duh-kee) - n., a figure of speech in which the whole is used to represent a part or a part is used to represent the whole.
So "daily bread" for food, "head" as a counter for cattle, or "lead" for bullets, for part-for-whole examples, and using "the law" for a police officer, or "Washington" or "China" for the federal government or Chinese government, for whole-for-part or general-for-specific examples. The Silva Rhetoricae has a little more. Borrowed around 1388 (!) from Latin, from Greek synekdochē, lit. "a receiving together or jointly" or fig. "simultaneous understanding," from synekdekhesthai, to take on a share of, from syn-, with + ek, out + dekhesthai, to receive.
---L.
So "daily bread" for food, "head" as a counter for cattle, or "lead" for bullets, for part-for-whole examples, and using "the law" for a police officer, or "Washington" or "China" for the federal government or Chinese government, for whole-for-part or general-for-specific examples. The Silva Rhetoricae has a little more. Borrowed around 1388 (!) from Latin, from Greek synekdochē, lit. "a receiving together or jointly" or fig. "simultaneous understanding," from synekdekhesthai, to take on a share of, from syn-, with + ek, out + dekhesthai, to receive.
---L.
