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The rhetoric way of substituting a proper name with a suitable epithet or a title is called as antonomasia. To gain a deeper understanding on this, explore the examples of antonomasia below.

Antonomasia Examples

From our ancestors come our names, but from our virtues come 'antonomasia'! Antonomasia is that figure of speech that employs a suitable epithet or appellative to cite a person or thing rather than the original name. Confused? Don't be! To put it in simple terms, antonomasia is a rhetoric way of giving an appropriate name or title to someone or something. The epithet or appellative is usually inspired by a specific character, a particular physical trait, or some outstanding feats or deeds of that person or thing and are not just any random names. For instance, when we hear the name of 'Mahatma Gandhi', the first thing that strikes our mind is 'Father of The Nation'. This is exactly what antonomasia means. This figure of speech is usually employed to give a general idea about that person or thing. In India, normally when a child wins a cup in some competition, the proud parents usually say, "Here is my Sher (Lion) with the cup." In reality, epithets like this make the person feel proud and add certain amount of grandeur to their personal appeal. Explore more about this figure of speech by glancing through these rattling examples of antonomasia.

Examples Of Antonomasia

Antonomasia Examples
Popular Antonomasia
Antonomasia is also known as nominatio, pronominatio and prosonomasia and is at times spelt as 'antinomasia'. The word 'antonomasia' comes from the Greek word 'antonomazein', which means to 'name differently' or 'instead of'. Antonomasia is all about substitution of names for a person with a praiseworthy appellation like brave, coward, furious, clever, and casanova and so on. Even in our daily dialogues, we tend to use antonomasia for complimenting or even abusing someone. Metaphor might look similar to antonomasia, but it is clearly not. There is no comparison made in this figure of speech; instead, a suitable name is placed in lieu of the pronoun.