Understanding Antonomasia

Understanding Antonomasia Antonomasia is a rhetorical term for the substitution of a title, epithet, or descriptive phrase for a proper name (or of a personal name for a common name) to designate a member of a group or class. It is a type of synecdoche. Roger Hornberry characterizes the figure as basically a nickname with knobs on (Sounds Good on Paper, 2010). Etymology From the Greek, instead of plus name (to name differently). Examples and Observations The character of James Sawyer Ford in the ABC television program Lost (2004-1010) regularly used antonomasia to annoy his companions. His nicknames for Hurley included Lardo, Kong, Pork Pie, Stay Puft, Rerun, Barbar, Pillsbury, Muttonchops, Mongo, Jabba, Deep Dish, Hoss, Jethro, Jumbotron, and International House of Pancakes.Calling a lover Casanova, an office worker Dilbert, Elvis Presley the King, Bill Clinton the Comeback Kid, or Horace Rumpoles wife She Who Must Be ObeyedWhen I eventually met Mr. Right I had no idea that his first name was Always.(Rita Rudner)If the waiter has a mortal enemy, it is the Primper. I hate the Primper. HATE THE PRIMPER! If theres a horrifying sound a waiter never wants to hear, its the THUMP of a purse on the counter. Then the digging sound of the Primpers claws trying to find makeup, hairbrushes, and perfume.(Laurie Notaro, The Idiot Girls Action-Adventure Club, 2002)Jerry: The guy who runs the place is a little temperamental, especially about the or dering procedure. Hes secretly referred to as the Soup Nazi.Elaine: Why? What happens if you dont order right?Jerry: He yells and you dont get your soup.(The Soup Nazi, Seinfeld, November 1995) I told you we could count on Mr. Old-Time Rock and Roll!(Murray referring to Arthur in Velvet Goldmine)Im a myth. Im Beowulf. Im Grendel.(Karl Rove) Metonymy This trope is of the same nature as metonymy, although it can not be said to exhibit the idea more vividly. It consists in putting in place of a proper name, another notion which may be either in apposition to it or predicated of it. Its principal use is to avoid the repetition of the same name, and the too frequent use of the pronoun. The most frequent forms of it are, naming a person from his parentage or country; as, Achilles is called Pelides; Napoleon Bonaparte, the Corsican: or naming him from some of his deeds; as, instead of Scipio, the destroyer of Carthage; instead of Wellington, the hero of Waterloo. In making use of this trope such designations should be selected as are well known, or can be easily understood from the connection, and free from ambiguitythat is, are not equally applicable to other well-known persons.(Andrew D. Hepburn, Manual of English Rhetoric, 1875)

The Life and Times of Neil DeGrasse Tyson

The Life and Times of Neil DeGrasse Tyson Have you heard or seen of  Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson?   If youre a space and astronomy fan, you almost certainly have run across his work. Dr. Tyson is   the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. He is best-known as the host of COSMOS: A Space-Time Odyssey, a 21st-century continuation of Carl Sagans hit science series   COSMOS from the 1980s. Hes also the host and executive producer of StarTalk Radio, a streaming program available online and through such venues as iTunes and Google.   The Life and Times of Neil DeGrasse Tyson Born and raised in New York City, Dr. Tyson realized he wanted to study space science when he was young and had a look through a pair of binoculars at the Moon. At the age of 9, he visited the Hayden Planetarium. There he had his first good look at how the starry sky looked. However, as he has often said when he was growing up, being smart is not on the list of things that gets you respect. He recalled that at that time, African-American boys were expected to be athletes, not scholars. That didnt stop the young Tyson from exploring his dreams of the stars. At 13, he attended summer astronomy camp in the Mojave Desert. There, he could see millions of stars in the clear desert sky. He attended the Bronx High School of Science  and went on to earn a BA in Physics from Harvard. He was a student-athlete at Harvard, rowing on the crew team and was part of the wrestling team. After earning a Masters degree from the University of Texas at Austin, he went home to New York to do his doctoral work at Columbia. He eventually earned his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Columbia University. As a doctoral student, Tyson wrote his dissertation on the Galactic Bulge. Thats the central region of our galaxy. It contains many older stars as well as a black hole and clouds of gas and dust. He worked as an astrophysicist and research scientist at Princeton University for a time and as a columnist for StarDate magazine. In 1996, Dr. Tyson became the first occupant of the Frederick P. Rose Directorship of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City (the youngest director in the long history of the planetarium). He worked as the project scientist for the planetariums renovation that began in 1997 and founded the department of astrophysics at the museum.   The Pluto Controversy In 2006, Dr. Tyson made news (along with the International Astronomical Union) when  Plutos planetary status was changed to dwarf planet. He has taken an active role in the public debate about the issue, often disagreeing with established planetary scientists about the nomenclature, while agreeing that Pluto is an interesting and unique world in the solar system.    Neil DeGrasse Tysons Astronomy Writing Career Dr. Tyson published the first of a number of books on astronomy and astrophysics in 1988. His research interests include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way. To conduct his research, he has used telescopes all over the world, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope. Over the years, he has written a number of research papers on these topics.   Dr. Tyson is heavily involved in writing about science for public consumption. He has worked on such books as One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos  (coauthored with Charles Liu and Robert Irion) and a very popular-level book called Just Visiting This Planet. He also wrote Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, and as well as Death by Black Hole, among other popular books. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is married with two children and resides in New York City. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos were recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid 13123 Tyson.   Edited by Carolyn Collins Petersen