METONYMY

(Greek: change of name, or misnomer), figure of speech in which the name of an object or concept is replaced with a word closely related to or suggested by the original, as crown for king (The power of the crown was mortally weakened) or an author for his works (I'm studying Shakespeare). A familiar Shakespearean example is Mark Antony's speech in Julius Caesar in which he asks of his audience: Lend me your ears. Metonymy is closely related to synecdoche, the naming of a part for the whole or a whole for the part, and is a common poetic device. Metonymy has the effect of creating concrete and vivid images in place of generalities, as in the substitution of a specific grave for the abstraction death. Metonymy is standard journalistic and headline practice as in the use of city hall for municipal government, the White House for the President of the United States, or Kremlin for the government of the Soviet Union.