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19-560: Vamadeva is probably a bahuvrihi (Sanskrit compound) which means "he whose God is beautiful". In the Mahabharata , a king of the Solar dynasty named Shala visits Vamadeva's hermitage during a hunt, asking the sage for a few of his horses belonging to the herd called vamya, reputed to be swift. Vamadeva agrees to lend the king the vamyas for the purpose of catching a deer, on the condition that they be returned to him immediately after

38-416: A certain characteristic or quality the referent possesses . A bahuvrihi is exocentric , so that the compound is not a hyponym of its head . For instance, a sabretooth ( smil-odon ) is neither a sabre nor a tooth , but a feline with sabre-like teeth. In Sanskrit bahuvrihis, the last constituent is a noun—more strictly, a nominal stem —while the whole compound is an adjective. In Vedic Sanskrit

57-404: A part of something to refer to the entirety. An example of this is saying "I need a hand" with a project, but needing the entire person. A macrocosm is the opposite, using the name of the entire structure of something to refer to a small part. An example of this is saying "the world" while referring to a certain country or part of the planet. The figure of speech is divided into the image (what

76-519: A term to denote one thing to refer to a related thing. Synecdoche (and thus metonymy) is distinct from metaphor , although in the past, it was considered a sub-species of metaphor, intending metaphor as a type of conceptual substitution (as Quintilian does in Institutio oratoria Book VIII). In Lanham's Handlist of Rhetorical Terms , the three terms possess somewhat restrictive definitions in tune with their etymologies from Greek: Synecdoche

95-587: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Synecdoche Synecdoche ( / s ɪ ˈ n ɛ k d ə k i / sih- NEK -də-kee ) is a type of metonymy ; it is a figure of speech that uses a term for a part of something to refer to the whole ( pars pro toto ), or vice versa ( totum pro parte ). The term is derived from Ancient Greek συνεκδοχή ( sunekdokhḗ )  'simultaneous understanding'. Common English synecdoches include suits for businessmen , wheels for automobile , and boots for soldiers . Another example

114-607: Is also popular in advertising. Since synecdoche uses a part to represent a whole, its use requires the audience to make associations and "fill in the gaps", engaging with the ad by thinking about the product. Moreover, catching the attention of an audience with advertising is often referred to by advertisers with the synecdoche "getting eyeballs". Synecdoche is common in spoken English, especially in reference to sports. The names of cities are used as shorthand for their sports teams to describe events and their outcomes, such as "Denver won Monday's game," while accuracy would require specifying

133-409: Is often used as a type of personification by attaching a human aspect to a nonhuman thing. It is used in reference to political relations, including "having a footing", to mean a country or organization is in a position to act, or "the wrong hands", to describe opposing groups, usually in the context of military power. The two main types of synecdoche are microcosm and macrocosm . A microcosm uses

152-643: Is the use of government buildings to refer to their resident agencies or bodies, such as The Pentagon for the United States Department of Defense and Downing Street or Number 10 for the office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom , and the use of the name of a country's capital city to refer to the government of the country. Synecdoche is a rhetorical trope and a kind of metonymy —a figure of speech using

171-779: The Ganesha Purana , Vamadeva curses a gandharva who accidentally trampled him to become a mouse. When the gandharva begged for mercy, the sage added that as a mouse, he would assume the honourable role of the vahana (mount) of Ganesha . In multiple places in the early Buddhist texts, such as the Vinaya Pitaka of the Mahavagga (I.245) section the Buddha lists the ancient Vedic rishis "Atthako, Vâmako, Vâmadevo , Vessâmitto , Yamataggi , Angiraso , Bhâradvâjo , Vâsettho , Kassapo , and Bhagu ". He consistently rejects

190-588: The accent is regularly on the first member ( tatpurusha rāja-pútra "a king's son", but bahuvrihi rājá-putra "having kings as sons" ( lit. king-sons), viz. rājá-putra- , m., "father of kings", rājá-putrā- , f., "mother of kings"), with the exception of a number of non-nominal prefixes such as the privative a ; the word bahuvrīhí is itself likewise an exception to this rule. Bahuvrihi compounds are called possessive compounds in English. In English, bahuvrihis can be identified and

209-468: The authority of the Vedas and the ancient seers, comparing them to a line of blind men. Bahuvrihi A bahuvrihi compound (from Sanskrit : बहुव्रीहि , romanized :  bahuvrīhi , lit.   'having much rice', originally referring to fertile land but later denoting the quality of being wealthy or rich) is a type of compound word that denotes a referent by specifying

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228-595: The government of Russia . The Élysée Palace might indicate the President of the French Republic . Sonnets and other forms of love poetry frequently use synecdoches to characterize the beloved in terms of individual body parts rather than a coherent whole. This practice is especially common in the Petrarchan sonnet , where the idealised beloved is often described part by part, head-to-toe. Synecdoche

247-459: The king's hunt. Shala breaks his word following the hunt, considering the horses unfit for the possession of a Brahmin , keeping them within his palace. Following a month, Vamadeva sends his disciple to ask the king to return the vamyas, but is refused. Angered, the sage personally travels to the king's court to demand their return. When refused once more, the sage warns the king not to create a conflict between their respective classes. The king offers

266-460: The last constituent is usually a noun, while the whole compound is a noun or an adjective. The accent is on the first constituent. English bahuvrihis often describe people using synecdoche : flatfoot , half-wit , highbrow , lowlife , redhead , tenderfoot , long-legs , and white-collar . In dictionaries and other reference works, the abbreviation 'Bhvr.' is sometimes used to indicate bahuvrihi compounds. This linguistic morphology article

285-418: The sage bulls, donkeys, and other horses instead, calling Vamadeva unworthy to own the vamyas. Furious, Vamadeva curses the king to be slain by rakshasas , and Shala is killed. His brother, Dala, upon ascending the throne, also refuses to give up the horses, and plots to have Vamadeva killed with a poisoned arrow. Vamadeva foils this scheme. When the new king repents, Vamadeva tells him that he may be absolved of

304-403: The sin of trying to murder a Brahmin by touching his queen with the arrow. The queen praises the sage and promises to serve Brahmins well thereafter. Pleased, Vamadeva offers her a boon, and she asks that he forgive her husband and wish him well. The boon granted, Dala returns the horses to the sage. In the same epic, he offers advice to King Vasumanas about the importance of righteousness. In

323-859: The speaker uses to refer to something) and the subject (what is referred to). In politics, the residence or location of an executive can be used to represent the office itself. For example, "the White House " can mean the Executive Office of the President of the United States ; " Buckingham Palace " can mean the monarchy of the United Kingdom ; "the Sublime Porte " can mean the Ottoman Empire ; and "the Kremlin " can mean

342-426: The sports team's name. Kenneth Burke (1945), an American  literary theorist , declared that in rhetoric , the four master tropes , or figures of speech , are metaphor , metonymy , synecdoche, and irony . Burke's primary concern with these four master tropes is more than simply their figurative usage, but includes their role in the discovery and description of the truth. He described synecdoche as "part of

361-425: The whole, whole for the part, container for the contained, sign for the thing signified, material for the thing made… cause for the effect, effect for the cause, genus for the species, species for the genus". In addition, Burke suggests synecdoche patterns can include reversible pairs such as disease-cure. Burke proclaimed the noblest synecdoche is found in the description of " microcosm and macrocosm " since microcosm

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