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Oct 29, 2014
This week's theme
Rhetorical devices

This week's words
antimetabole
zeugma
synecdoche
epanalepsis
hendiadys

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

synecdoche

PRONUNCIATION:
(si-NEK-duh-kee)

MEANING:
noun: A figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole or vice versa.
Examples: "head count" to refer to the count of people or "the police" to refer to a police officer

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin synekdoche, from Greek synekdokhe, from syn- (together) + ekdokhe (interpretation). Earliest documented use: 1397.

USAGE:
"Rome was the heart of Italy, a synecdoche for all that humanity had wrought. Rome bore witness to the fate of republics and empires, faiths and fortunes."
Jane Kamensky; John Singleton Copley's Grand Tour; Smithsonian (Washington, DC); Apr 2014.

See more usage examples of synecdoche in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, -- quieter, warmer. -Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary General of the United Nations, Nobel laureate (1905-1961)

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