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Antonomasia
 
 
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In rhetoric
Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Along with logic and dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse....
, antonomasia is a substitution of any epithet
Epithet

An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing, which has become a fixed formula....
 or phrase for a proper name, such as "the little corporal
Corporal

Corporal is a Military rank in use in some form by most militaries and also by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to Ranks and insignia of NATO....
" for Napoleon I. The reverse process is also sometimes called antonomasia. The word derives from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 verb (antonomázein), meaning "to name differently". Antonomasia is a particular form of metonymy
Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept....
.

The name used to substitute an abstract notion or personal trait is commonly called archetype
Archetype

An archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype after which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all....
 or, more specifically, archetypal name
Archetypal name

Archetypal names are proper names of real, mythological, or fictional characters that have become designations for archetypes of certain personal traits....
.

A frequent instance of antonomasia in the Late Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages

The Late Middle Ages is a term used by historians to describe history of Europe in the periodization of the 14th and 15th centuries . The Late Middle Ages were preceded by the High Middle Ages, and followed by the Early modern Europe ....
 and early Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 was the use of the term, "the Philosopher," to refer to Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
.






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In rhetoric
Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Along with logic and dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse....
, antonomasia is a substitution of any epithet
Epithet

An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing, which has become a fixed formula....
 or phrase for a proper name, such as "the little corporal
Corporal

Corporal is a Military rank in use in some form by most militaries and also by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to Ranks and insignia of NATO....
" for Napoleon I. The reverse process is also sometimes called antonomasia. The word derives from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 verb (antonomázein), meaning "to name differently". Antonomasia is a particular form of metonymy
Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept....
.

The name used to substitute an abstract notion or personal trait is commonly called archetype
Archetype

An archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype after which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all....
 or, more specifically, archetypal name
Archetypal name

Archetypal names are proper names of real, mythological, or fictional characters that have become designations for archetypes of certain personal traits....
.

A frequent instance of antonomasia in the Late Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages

The Late Middle Ages is a term used by historians to describe history of Europe in the periodization of the 14th and 15th centuries . The Late Middle Ages were preceded by the High Middle Ages, and followed by the Early modern Europe ....
 and early Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 was the use of the term, "the Philosopher," to refer to Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
. A more recent example of the other form of antonomasia (usage of archetypes) was the use of "Solons" for "the legislators" in 1930s journalism, after the semi-legendary Solon
Solon

Solon was an Athens statesman, lawmaker, and lyric poetry. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in Archaic period in Greece Athens....
, lawgiver of Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
.

Examples

  • "Pelides" or "the son of Peleus" for Achilles
    Achilles

    In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greeks hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme ; the Wrath of Achilles....
    .
  • "The Stagirite" for Aristotle
    Aristotle

    Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
    .
  • "The little corporal" for Napoleon I.
  • "Macedonia's madman" for Alexander the Great
    Alexander the Great

    Alexander the Great , also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greeks King of Macedon . He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle....
    .
  • "the author of Paradise Lost" for Milton.
  • "The Commentator" for Averroes
    Averroes

    Abu 'l-Walid Mu?ammad ibn A?mad ibn Rushd , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was an Al-Andalus-Arab Muslim polymath: a master of early Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki Sharia and Fiqh, Logic in Islamic philosophy, Psychology in medieval Islam, Arabic music theory, and the Scien...
     (so named for his commentaries on "The Philosopher" Aristotle's works)
  • "The Iron Duke" for the Duke of Wellington
    Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

    Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Order of the Garter, Order of St Patrick, Order of the Bath, Royal Guelphic Order, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, Royal Society , was an Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the nineteenth century....
    .
  • "The Bard" for William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
    .
  • "The Magpies" for Newcastle United.
  • "Old Blue Eyes" for Frank Sinatra
    Frank Sinatra

    Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an United States singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great success in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers"....
    .
  • "The Scottish play" for Macbeth
    Macbeth

    Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest Shakespearean tragedy and is believed to have been written some time between 1603 and 1606, with 1607 being the very latest possible date....
    .
  • "The Gipper", "The Great Communicator" for Ronald Reagan
    Ronald Reagan

    Ronald Wilson Reagan was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California . Born in Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s, where he was an actor, president of the Screen Actors Guild , and a spokesman for General Electric ....
    .
  • "The King" for Elvis Presley
    Elvis Presley

    Elvis Aaron Presley was an United Statesn singer, actor, and musician. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as "Elvis", and is also sometimes referred to as "List of honorific titles in popular music" or "The King"....
    .
  • "The Boss" for Bruce Springsteen
    Bruce Springsteen

    Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss", is an American songwriter, singer and musician. He has recorded and toured with the E Street Band....
    .
  • "The Iron Lady" for Margaret Thatcher
    Margaret Thatcher

    Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher Order of the Garter, Order of Merit, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Fellow of the Royal Society was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990....
    .
  • "A young preacher from Georgia" for Martin Luther King (as used by Barack Obama in his victory speech)


See "archetypal name
Archetypal name

Archetypal names are proper names of real, mythological, or fictional characters that have become designations for archetypes of certain personal traits....
" for examples of the opposite kind of antonomasia.

See also

  • Eponym
    Eponym

    An eponym is a person, whether real or fictitious, after whom a particular toponym, ethnonym, regnal year, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named....