synecdochical
1
9.9
- adjective
- /ˌsɪnɪkˈdɑkɪkəl/
- Literature
- When he referred to the United States as 'the Land of Opportunity,' it was a synecdochical expression that highlighted its promising nature.
Examples
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In the phrase 'All hands on deck,' the term 'hands' serves a synecdochical purpose by representing the sailors.
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As Sainz pointed out, encyclopedic novels operate on a basic synecdochical relation of the parts to the whole, a relation developed by Hegel in his dialectical method.
Academic text (2003) -
Consciously or not, Ina's reflection puts a new, though morbid, spin on Brillat-Savarin's synecdochical aphorism.
Academic text (2016) -
The self-conscious orchestration of several levels of communication in Terra Nostra relies on basic organizing and structural principles of metonymical and synecdochical association.
Academic text (2003) -
In advertising, using 'wheels' to indicate a car is an example of synecdochical language where a part represents the whole.
Synonyms
1
9.9
To use a part to mean the whole or the whole to mean a part, for example 'wheels' for 'car'
How Figurative
Surface Forms
Morphology
synecdochical = synecdoche (transparent) = synecdoche + ical
The adjective is directly formed from the noun 'synecdoche' with the standard adjectival suffix '-ical', yielding 'relating to synecdoche'.
Etymology
Synecdochical comes from Greek parts syn- 'together' and ecdochē 'taking', so it gives the image of 'one thing taken to stand for another'. The syn- part is the same as in synchronize 'together', and a helpful way to remember it is to think of calling workers 'hands', where the part 'hands' stands for the whole person, which is what synecdochical language does.