Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. The metaphorical technique of
naming a specific part when referring to the whole. 2. Naming
the whole to indicate a part. Notes: Today's Good Word is the
proper literary term for a habit that is ubiquitous in common
speech. The adjective for it is synecdochic(al) and you may use
the adverb when you speak synecdochically. The practice of using
synecdoches is synecdochism. In Play: You avail yourself of
synecdoche every time you say a neighbor lives two doors down
the street, meaning houses. When your teenaged son whose English
grades are low says, "I can't go out tonight, the 'rents have
the wheels," he is saying "car" with one of the major rhetorical
devices of English. The reverse situation, using a whole to
refer to a part, is also synecdoche: "I think Ghana is going to
beat Brazil in the World Cup," besides being wishful thinking,
is a synecdoche in which wholes (Ghana, Brazil) refer to only
parts of themselves (the Ghanaian and Brazilian soccer teams).
Word History: Today'