Antonomasia

In rhetoric, antonomasia is a kind of metonymy in which an epithet or phrase takes the place of a proper name, such as "the little corporal" for Napoleon I. Conversely, antonomasia can also be using a proper name as an archetypal name, to express a generic idea.

A frequent instance of antonomasia in the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance was the use of the term "the Philosopher" to refer to Aristotle. A more recent example of the other form of antonomasia (usage of archetypes) was the use of "Solons" for "the legislators" in 1930s journalism, after the semi-legendary Solon, lawgiver of Athens.

Stylistically, such epithets may be used for elegant variation to reduce repetition of names in phrases.

The word comes from the Greek ἀντονομασία, antonomasia, itself from the verb ἀντονομάζειν, antonomazein 'to name differently'.

Examples

Persons

• "El Caudillo" for Francisco Franco
• "El Jefe" for Rafael Trujillo
• "Il Duce" for Benito Mussolini
• "La Divina" for Maria Callas
• "La Stupenda" for Joan Sutherland
• "Macedonia's madman" for Alexander the Great
• "Man of Steel" or simply "Steel" for Joseph Stalin
• "Mr. Soul" for Sam Cooke
• "Old Blue Eyes" or "The Chairman of the Board" for Frank Sinatra
• "Pelides" or "the son of Peleus" for Achilles
• "Son of Laertes" or "Man of Pain" for Odysseus
• "The (Great) Bambino" for Babe Ruth
• "The Bard" for William Shakespeare
• "The Big Bopper" for Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr
• "The Boss" for Bruce Springsteen
• "The Commentator" for Averroes (so named for his commentaries on "The Philosopher" Aristotle's works)
• "The Don" for Sir Donald Bradman
• "The Fab Four" for The Beatles
• "The First Lady of Song" for Ella Fitzgerald
• "The Führer" for Adolf Hitler
• "The Gipper" or "The Great Communicator" for Ronald Reagan
• "The Great Commoner" for Winston Churchill
• "The Great Emancipator" for Abraham Lincoln
• "The Great Silent One" for Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
• "The Greatest" for Muhammad Ali
• "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" or "Soul Brother Number 1" or “The Godfather of Soul” for James Brown
• "The High Priestess of Soul" for Nina Simone
• "The Iron Chancellor" for Otto von Bismarck
• "The Iron Lady" or the "The Leaderene" for Margaret Thatcher
• "The King of Pop" for Michael Jackson
• "The King of Soccer" for Pelé
• "The King" for Elvis Presley
• "The little corporal" for Napoleon
• "The Little Master" for Sachin Tendulkar
• "The Magpies" for Newcastle United
• "The Mahatma" for Mohandas Gandhi
• "The Queen of Pop" or "The Material Girl" for Madonna
• "The Queen of Soul" for Aretha Franklin
• "The Shah" for Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
• "The Stagirite" or "The Philosopher" for Aristotle
• "The Steel Butterfly" for Imelda Marcos
• "The Tiger of Mysore" for Tipu Sultan

Fictional characters

• "The Boy Who Lived" for Harry Potter
• "The Dark Knight" or "The Caped Crusader" for Batman (also referred as "The Dynamic Duo" when paired with fictional sidekick, Robin)
• "The Man of Steel" or the "Man of Tomorrow" for Superman

Works of art

• "The Scottish play" for Macbeth

Places

• "Auld Reekie" for Edinburgh
• "City of Dreams" for Mumbai
• "The Big Apple" for New York City
• "The City of Light" for Paris
• "The Eternal City" or "Urbe" for Rome
• "The Smoke" for London
• "The Windy City" for Chicago

Opposite examples

See "archetypal name" for examples of the opposite kind of antonomasia.

One common example in French is the word for fox: the Latin-derived French: goupil was replaced by French: renard, from Renart, the fox hero of the Roman de Renart; originally German Reinhard.

See also

• Eponym
• Sobriquet
• Synecdoche
• Trademark erosion
• Honorific nicknames in popular music

External links

 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Antonomasia". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.