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Metonymy vs Eponym - What's the difference?

metonymy | eponym |

As nouns the difference between metonymy and eponym

is that metonymy is the use of a single characteristic or name of an object to identify an entire object or related object while eponym is the name of a real or fictitious person whose name has, or is thought to have, given rise to the name of a particular item.

metonymy

Noun

  • The use of a single characteristic or name of an object to identify an entire object or related object.
  • (countable) A metonym.
  • {{examples-right, caption=metonymy , examples=*The White House released its official report today. — "The White House" for "The presidential administration"
    * The Crown has enacted a new social security policy. — "The Crown" for "The government of the United Kingdom".
    * A crowd of fifty heads — where "head" stands for person.
    * Put it on the plastic — material (plastic) for object (credit card), width=60%}}

    Coordinate terms

    * metaphor

    Hypernyms

    * trope, figure of speech

    Hyponyms

    * synecdoche, synecdochy

    Derived terms

    * metonymous * metonym * metonymic

    See also

    * ("metonymy" on Wikipedia) * metalepsis *

    eponym

    English

    (wikipedia eponym)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The name of a real or fictitious person whose name has, or is thought to have, given rise to the name of a particular item.
  • ''Romulus is the eponym of Rome.
  • A word formed from a real or fictive person’s name.
  • ''Rome is an eponym of Romulus.
    Alzheimer's disease, boycott, Columbia, stentorian, sandwich and Victorian are examples of eponyms .

    Synonyms

    * namesake

    Derived terms

    * eponymous