[Home]Synecdoche

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ToothyWiki often uses the referent "ToothyWiki" as a Synecdoche; to refer not just to the wiki itself, but also the wikizens, the community built around it, and the subset of the consensus views or spirit of that community that gets expressed on the wiki.

Synecdoche is one of those rare words that has two directly contradictory meanings (contradictanyms).  It can mean 'taking the part as being the whole' (Pars pro toto) or 'taking the whole as being the part' (Totum pro parte)

No it doesn't. It has one meaning, which is to use an aspect of something to refer to the thing. This aspect might be a part of the thing, or might be the thing of which it is a part; it might also be making the general stand for the specific or the specific for the general, or making the material that something is made of stand for the thing itself ('cross my palm with silver'). --no-reverse
I agree with you up to the semi-colon, but I think metonymy is more usually used for the meanings after the semi-colon. --Rachael
The two overlap. Metonymy covers using words that a thing is associated with but are not actually part of it ('crown' for 'king', metonymy; 'hand' for 'sailor', synecdoche'); materials and specifics are a grey area in the middle (is 'steel' for 'sword' moe like 'blade' (unquestionably synecdoche) or 'brand'?) which it's probably not worth arguing about on a case-by-case basis. Anyway, the point is it's not a word with two directly contradiction meaning and even if it were it wouldn't open any deep questions about cognition but rather shallow ones about novelty etymology.
Agreed. --Rachael

As such, it has ties into not just oratory (like Hendiadys), rhyming slang and computer methodology, it also opens deep questions about cognition and psychology.

Yeah right. --no-reverse

How is it pronounced? Does it rhyme with 'brioche' or with 'psyche'? I'm assuming the 'y' there is pronounced in the English fashion as 'i' rather than 'u'. --Requiem
sin ECK dock ee, I believe. --Rachael
Dictionary.com agrees - "si-nek-duh-kee" --CH
Ewww.  And don't call me ducky. --SGB

(Surely WordOfTheDay should be "Diurnality" ?)



NoLongerWordOfTheDay

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