Antonomasia

Inrhetoric,antonomasiais a kind ofmetonymyin which anepithetor phrase takes the place of a proper name, such as "the littlecorporal"forNapoleon I,or conversely the use of a proper name as anarchetypal name,to express a generic idea. A frequent instance of antonomasia in theLate Middle Agesand earlyRenaissancewas the use of the term "the Philosopher" to refer toAristotle.

Stylistically, such epithets may be used forelegant variationto reduce repetition of names in phrases. The word comes from theGreekἀντονομασία,antonomasia,itself from the verbἀντονομάζειν,antonomazein'to name differently'.

Archetypal names

The opposite of antonomasia is anarchetypal name.One common example in French is the word for fox: the Latin-derivedFrench:goupilwas replaced byFrench:renard,from Renart, the fox hero of theRoman de Renart(originally the German Reinhard).

Examples

Persons

• "ElCaudillo"forFrancisco Franco
• "El Jefe" forRafael Trujillo
• "IlDuce"forBenito Mussolini
• "La Divina" forMaria Callas
• "La Stupenda" forJoan Sutherland
• "Man of Steel" or simply "Steel" forJoseph Stalin
• "Mr. Soul" forSam Cooke
• "Old Blue Eyes" or "The Chairman of the Board" forFrank Sinatra
• "Pelides" or "the son of Peleus" forAchilles
• "Son of Laertes" or "Man of Pain" forOdysseus
• "The (Great) Bambino" forBabe Ruth
• "The Bard" forWilliam Shakespeare
• "The Big Bopper" forJiles Perry Richardson, Jr
• "The Boss" forBruce Springsteen
• "The Commentator" forAverroes(so named for his commentaries on "The Philosopher" Aristotle's works)
• "The Don" forSir Donald Bradman
• "The Fab Four" forThe Beatles
• "The First Lady of Song" forElla Fitzgerald
• "TheFührer"forAdolf Hitler
• "The Genius of the Carpathians" forNicolae Ceausescu(note that this is only used ironically)
• "The Gipper" or "The Great Communicator" forRonald Reagan
• "The Great Commoner" forWinston Churchill
• "The Great Emancipator" or "Honest Abe" forAbraham Lincoln
• "The Great Silent One" forHelmuth von Moltke the Elder
• "The Greatest" forMuhammad Ali
• "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" or "Soul Brother Number 1" or “The Godfather of Soul” forJames Brown
• "The High Priestess of Soul" forNina Simone
• "The Iron Chancellor" forOtto von Bismarck
• "The Iron Lady" or "The Leaderene" forMargaret Thatcher
• "Radical Jack" forJohn Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham
• "The King of Pop" forMichael Jackson
• "The King of Rock 'n Roll" forChuck Berry,Elvis Presley,orLittle Richard
• "The Little Corporal" or "Corsican Ogre" forNapoleon
• "The Little Master" forSachin Tendulkar
• "The Mahatma" forMohandas Gandhi
• "The Master of Suspense" forAlfred Hitchcock
• "The Prince of Darkness" forWilliam Francis Galvin
• "The Queen of Pop" or "The Material Girl" forMadonna
• "The Little Private" forAdolf Hitlerbefore theMachtergreifung
• "The Queen of Soul" forAretha Franklin
• "The Red Baron" forManfred von Richthofen
• "The Shah" forShah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
• "The Stagirite" or "The Philosopher" forAristotle
• "The Steel Butterfly" forImelda Marcos
• "The Tiger of Mysore" forTipu Sultan
• “El Libertador”forSimón Bolívar

Fictional characters

• "The Boy Who Lived" forHarry Potter
• "The Banshee Queen" forSylvanas Windrunner
• "The Dark Knight" or "The Caped Crusader" forBatman(also referred as "The Dynamic Duo" when paired with fictional sidekick,Robin)
• "The Man of Steel" or the "Man of Tomorrow" forSuperman
• "The Mother of Dragons" forDaenerys Targaryen
• "The Ring Bearer" forFrodo Baggins
• "The Mad Titan" forThanos

Works of art

• "The Scottish Play"forMacbeth

Places

• "Caput mundi"for Rome
• "The Athens of America" forBoston
• "Auld Reekie" forEdinburgh
• "The Big Apple" forNew York City
• "The Big Easy" forNew Orleans
• "The City by the Bay" forSan Francisco
• "The City of Brotherly Love" forPhiladelphia
• "City of Dreams" forMumbai
• "The City of Hundred Gates" for ancientThebes, Egypt
• "The City of Kings" forLima, Peru
• "The City of Light" forParis
• "The City of Palaces" forMexico City
• "The Eternal City" or "Urbe" forRome
• "La Dominante," "La Serenissima," "Queen of the Adriatic," "City of Water," "City of Masks," "City of Bridges," "The Floating City," and "City of Canals" forVenice
• "La La Land" forLos Angeles
• "The Red Stick" forBaton Rouge
• "The Smoke" forLondon
• "The South American Athens" forBogotá
• "The White City" for theWorld's Columbian Exposition
• "The Windy City" forChicago
• "The Emerald City" forSeattle
• "Elbflorenz"(Florence of theElbe) forDresden

See also

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

External links

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