fennerpearson

By fennerpearson

Not a synecdoche

Sometimes you encounter a word out of any context, a word you don't know, so you go and look it up to find out what it means. (Well, I do, anyway.)

Here's what Wikipedia says about one such word: "A synecdoche (from Greek synekdoche, meaning "simultaneous understanding") is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something, or vice-versa. For example, referring to a congregation as the church or workers as hired hands."

I learnt that word sometime earlier this year and I thought of it today when I looked at the shelf in the bathroom and thought how the mix of order and disorder represents the rest of the house. But then I re-read the definition and realised that the shelf, whilst representative, is not actually a synecdoche :-(

But hopefully this post will help me remember what it actually does mean in future.

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