Home1815 Edition

ANTONOMASIA

Volume 2 · 87 words · 1815 Edition

a form of speech, in which, for a proper name, is put the name of some dignity, office, profession, science or trade; or when a proper name is put in the room of an appellative. Thus a king is called his majesty; a nobleman, his lordship. We say the philosopher instead of Aristotle, and the orator for Cicero: Thus a man is called by the name of his country, a German, an Italian; and a grave man is called a Cato, and a wise man a Solomon.