Antonomasia

In rhetoric, antonomasia is a substitution of any epithet or phrase for a proper name, such as "the little corporal" for Napoleon I. The reverse process is also sometimes called antonomasia. The word derives from the Greek ἀντονομασία, antonomasia, itself from the verb ἀντονομάζειν, antonomazein, meaning "to name differently". Antonomasia is a particular form of metonymy.

The name used to substitute an abstract notion or personal trait is commonly called archetype or, more specifically, archetypal name.

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.

Examples

• "Son of Laertes" or "Man of Pain" for Odysseus
• "Pelides" or "the son of Peleus" for Achilles
• "The Stagirite" or "The Philosopher" for Aristotle
• "Macedonia's madman" for Alexander the Great
• "The Iron Lady" or the "The Leaderene" for Margaret Thatcher
• "The Commentator" for Averroes (so named for his commentaries on "The Philosopher" Aristotle's works)
• "The Dark Knight" or "The Caped Crusader" for Batman (also referred as "The Dynamic Duo" when paired with fictional sidekick, Robin)
• "The Fab Four" for The Beatles
• "The Great Commoner" for Winston Churchill
• "The Iron Chancellor" for Otto von Bismarck
• "The Don" for Sir Donald Bradman
• "La Divina" for Maria Callas
• "El Caudillo" for Francisco Franco
• "The Mahatma" for Mohandas Gandhi
• "The Führer" for Adolf Hitler
• "The King of Soccer" for Pelé
• "The King of Pop" for Michael Jackson
• "The Emancipator" for Abraham Lincoln
• "The Queen of Pop" or "The Material Girl" for Madonna
• "The First Lady of Song" for Ella Fitzgerald
• "The Scottish play" for Macbeth
• "The Steel Butterfly" for Imelda Marcos
• "Il Duce" for Benito Mussolini
• "The little corporal" for Napoleon
• "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" or "Soul Brother Number 1" or “The Godfather of Soul” for James Brown
• "Mr. Soul" for Sam Cooke Sam Cooke
• "The Magpies" for Newcastle United
• "The King" for Elvis Presley
• "The Gipper" or "The Great Communicator" for Ronald Reagan
• "The (Great) Bambino" for Babe Ruth
• "The Bard" for William Shakespeare
• "The High Priestess of Soul" for Nina Simone
• "Old Blue Eyes" or "The Chairman of the Board" for Frank Sinatra
• "The Boss" for Bruce Springsteen
• "The Man of Steel" or the "Man of Tomorrow" for Superman
• "Man of Steel" or simply "Steel" for Joseph Stalin
• "Uncle Lenin" for Vladimir Lenin
• "Uncle Ho" for Ho Chi Minh
• "La Stupenda" for Joan Sutherland
• "The Little Master" for Sachin Tendulkar
• "El Jefe" for Rafael Trujillo
• "The Iron Duke" for the Duke of Wellington
• "The Queen of Soul" for Aretha Franklin
• "The Shah" for Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
• "The Eternal City" or "Urbe" for Rome
• "The City of Lights" for Paris
• "The Big Apple" for New York City
• "The Smoke" for London
• "The Greatest" for Muhammad Ali
• "The Boy Who Lived" for Harry Potter
• "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
• Trademark erosion
• Honorific nicknames in popular music

External links

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