metonymic

English

WOTD – 16 April 2010

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μετωνυμικός (metōnumikós, “of or like metonymy”), from μετωνυμία (metōnumía, “change of name”), from μετά (metá, “other”) + ὄνυμα (ónuma, “name”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌmɛt.əˈnɪm.ɪk/

Adjective

metonymic (comparative more metonymic, superlative most metonymic)

1. Of, or relating to, a word or phrase that names an object from a single characteristic of it or of a closely related object

   The British government is often referred to by the metonymic expression "Downing Street".

   • 1999, Udo Hahn & Katja Markert, "On the Formal Distinction between Literal and Figurative Language", Progress in Artificial Intelligence: 9th Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence, page 140

     With a metonymic expression encountered in almost every sixth utterance, an uncontroversial need for dealing with this problem is demonstrated.

   Synonym: metonymical

Derived terms

• metonymically

Related terms

• metonym
• metonymy

 

Translations

of, or relating to, a word that names an object from a single characteristic of it or of a closely related object

• Catalan: metonímic
• Danish: metonymisk
• Finnish: metonyyminen (fi)
• French: métonymique (fr)
• Irish: meatonaimeach
• Italian: metonimico (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: metonymisk

  Nynorsk: metonymisk

• Russian: метоними́ческий (ru) (metonimíčeskij)
• Spanish: metonímico (es)

Noun

metonymic (plural metonymics)

1. a metonym

Translations

metonym — see metonym