pars pro toto

Latin

Examples
Bread to mean food in general. Body or soul to mean a person.

Etymology

From pars (“part”) + prō (“for”) + tōtō, ablative singular of tōtus (“whole, entire”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /pars proː ˈtoː.toː/, [pärs̠ proː ˈt̪oːt̪oː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /pars pro ˈto.to/, [pärs prɔː ˈt̪ɔːt̪o]

Noun

pars prō tōtō f sg (genitive partis prō tōtō); third declension

1. A type of metonymy in which an entity (person, object) is referred to by a (conspicuous) part, for the whole, e.g. a country by its capital.

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem, ablative singular in -e or occasionally -ī) with an indeclinable portion, singular only.

Case	Singular
Nominative	pars prō tōtō
Genitive	partis prō tōtō
Dative	partī prō tōtō
Accusative	partem prō tōtō
Ablative	parte prō tōtō partī prō tōtō
Vocative	pars prō tōtō

See also

• tōtum prō parte