Re: On the subject of idioms ...

This reminds me of the kenningar (sg. kenning), fixed metaphors used
in the ancient literature of Germanic languages. It may not be the
term you're looking for, but may be worth a look anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenning

João Ricardo de Mendonça



On 11/14/05, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> wrote:
> In Meghean it's considered nifty and sophisticated to refer to abstract concepts
> by mentioning two related concrete things instead. So, one might say _conich oa
> teoa_ "spear and fire" for "war", or _inde oa mañha_ "coin and ship" for trade.
>
> Is there a name for this sort of idiom? It's a case of pars pro toto (partes pro
> toto?), but is there something more specific?
>
>                                                 Andreas
>

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