Synecdoche or metonymy?

I don't think I've ever seen those two words before.
But after poring over my American-USA dictionary, I think, in my humble, and tenative, opinion that your example is a: synecdoche.

My reasoning is: A businessman consists of: A man, his suit, his fancy watch, his fat wallet, his two-toned shoes, his business liquid lunches, etc.

So I ask my buddy, "How many suits have you arrested this week?"

Or I could have said, "How many two-tones have you arrested this week?"

That I think is similar to me asking a buddy of mine that owns houses, "How many roofs did you purchase this week?"

In my dictionary, as an example for synecdoche, it has: as a roof for a house.

synecdoche: a figure of speech where a part is put for a whole ...

-----

metonymy: A figure of speech that consists in the naming of a thing by one of its attributes, as "the crown prefers" for "the king prefers."

So, if I had a friend named Tom that was short, then I could say, "Tomorrow we'll give Tom the day off." Or I could say, "Tomorrow we'll give shorty the day off."


I think. But I could be wrong. This is not my field of expertise. Not even a hobby. Yeah, I'll admit it; I'm guessing.

It's metonymy; see also Lanham, Richard A. A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, and Burke, Kenneth A. A Grammar of Motives.

Wikipedia goes into more detail. I came to the same conclusion as Medievalist.

LloydBrown said:

Wikipedia goes into more detail. I came to the same conclusion as Medievalist.

Click to expand...

As used here, the term also carries a negative connotation, much the same as an R.E.M.F.

R.E.M.F.

JennaGlatzer said:

Thanks, folks!

And now I have to ask... what's an R.E.M.F?

Click to expand...

Maybe this is a different one, but the only R.E.M.F. I know comes from the military. The first two words are "Rear Echelon." I think everyone can figure of what the "M.F." stands for.

Jamesaritchie said:

Maybe this is a different one, but the only R.E.M.F. I know comes from the military. The first two words are "Rear Echelon." I think everyone can figure of what the "M.F." stands for.

Click to expand...

Yup, that's the one. R.E.M.F.'s have a habit of staying well back behind the lines (the Rear Echelon) basking in all the comforts of home (clean laundry, distilled spirits, clean and largely disease-free ladies of negotiable virtue) while they order the troops at the sharp end to go and do something dirty, deadly, and pointless. That earned them the 'Mudder Forker' sobriquet. The rearest of the REMF's stayed in the States, and tended to be Suits.

From E.W. Bullinger's Figures of Speech Used in the Bible

Metonymy of the Adjunct ... is when that which pertains to anything is put for the thing itself...

Synecdoche ... when a part of a thing is put by a kind of Metonymy for the whole of it, or the whole for a part. The difference between Metonymy and Synecdoche lies in this; that in Metonymy, the exchange is made between two related nouns; while in Synecdoche, the exchange is made between two associated ideas.

Eg. of synecdoche of the Part: An integral part of man (individually) for the whole man, etc.

Click to expand...

Cool question. What fun it must be to write books that make you ask weird and wonderful questions.

Thanks for making me go look at this book again. It's been a while.

ltd.

Military

Duncan J Macdonald said:

Yup, that's the one. R.E.M.F.'s have a habit of staying well back behind the lines (the Rear Echelon) basking in all the comforts of home (clean laundry, distilled spirits, clean and largely disease-free ladies of negotiable virtue) while they order the troops at the sharp end to go and do something dirty, deadly, and pointless. That earned them the 'Mudder Forker' sobriquet. The rearest of the REMF's stayed in the States, and tended to be Suits.

Click to expand...

This reminds me of another great word derived from the military. SNAFU. I've heard many a good Christian person who would never dream of using the F word say something is a real snafu. Many apparently do not know it's actually S.N.A.F.U.

Jamesaritchie said:

This reminds me of another great word derived from the military. SNAFU. I've heard many a good Christian person who would never dream of using the F word say something is a real snafu. Many apparently do not know it's actually S.N.A.F.U.

Click to expand...

The SNAFU test is a good test for the quality of a dictionary. If it has the real term Situation Normal All F(ouled) Up, is is a pretty good dictionary.

Prawn said:

The SNAFU test is a good test for the quality of a dictionary. If it has the real term Situation Normal All F(ouled) Up, is is a pretty good dictionary.

Click to expand...

No one I ever knew in the miltary said "Fouled" That's the cleaned up version for public consumption.

Jamesaritchie said:

This reminds me of another great word derived from the military. SNAFU. I've heard many a good Christian person who would never dream of using the F word say something is a real snafu. Many apparently do not know it's actually S.N.A.F.U.

Click to expand...

It doesn't count if you abbreviate it.

ltd.

Count

limitedtimeauthor said:

It doesn't count if you abbreviate it.

ltd.

Click to expand...

In that case, my writing schedule for 2007 is already pure SNAFU.