> Andreas Johansson 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.
>
> Very nice!! I wish I'd thought of that.........
> >
> > 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?
> >
> I know it has a name, but... I thought it was _antonomasia_ or
> _paronomasia_; the first is possible though not quite... according to AHD it
> means the use of a title, or name, to describe a person or class of people
> (e.g. "Your/His/Her Majesty", or calling a traitor a "Benedict Arnold"); but
> other sources suggest it might be the use of attributes to refer to a
> whole-- so yours would count. (Paronomasia refers to punning...........)
>
> Oh never mind. It's metonymy; see--
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy
>
> Well, OTOH...scroll down a bit in that entry; it might also be synecdoche
>
> Hope this helps :-}