different between synecdoche vs epithet

English

Alternative forms

• syndoche
• synechdoche

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin synecdoch?, from Ancient Greek ????????? (sunekdokh?, “receiving together”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??n?k.d?.ki/, /s??n?k.do?.ki/

Noun

synecdoche (countable and uncountable, plural synecdoches)

1. (rhetoric) A figure of speech that uses the name of a part of something to represent the whole, or the whole to represent a part.

   Hyponyms: pars pro toto, totum pro parte

   Hypernym: metonymy

   • 2002, Christopher Hitchens, "Martin Amis: Lightness at Midnight", The Atlantic, Sep 2002:

     "Holocaust" can become a tired synecdoche for war crimes in general.
2. (rhetoric) The use of this figure of speech.

   Synonym: synecdochy

Usage notes

Technically, a synecdoche is a part of the referent while a metonym is connected or associated but not necessarily a part of it.

Derived terms

Related terms

• docetism
• meronymy

Translations

See also

• metaphor
• metonymy

Further reading

• synecdoche on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin synecdoche, from Ancient Greek ????????? (sunekdokh?, “receiving together”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sin?k?do?x?/

Noun

synecdoche f (plural synecdoches, diminutive synecdochetje n)

1. (literature) synecdoche

See also

• metonymia

English

Etymology

From Middle French épithète, from Latin, from Ancient Greek ???????? (epítheton, “epithet, adjective”), the neuter of ???????? (epíthetos, “attributed, added”), from ????????? (epitíth?mi, “to add on”), from ???- (epi-, “in addition”) + ?????? (títh?mi, “to put”) (from Proto-Indo-European *d?eh?- (“to put, to do”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.p?.??t/
• Hyphenation: ep?i?thet

Noun

epithet (plural epithets)

1. A term used to characterize a person or thing.
2. A term used as a descriptive substitute for the name or title of a person.
3. One of many formulaic words or phrases used in the Iliad and Odyssey to characterize a person, a group of people, or a thing.
4. An abusive or contemptuous word or phrase.
5. (taxonomy) A word in the scientific name of a taxon following the name of the genus or species. This applies only to formal names of plants, fungi and bacteria. In formal names of animals the corresponding term is the specific name.

Synonyms

• (descriptive substitute): cognomen

Derived terms

• epithetic
• epithetical
• epithetically
• epithetise, epithetize
• epithetism

Translations

Verb

epithet (third-person singular simple present epithets, present participle epitheting, simple past and past participle epitheted)

1. (transitive) To term; to refer to as.