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 verb (antonomázein), 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" for Aristotle
 * "Macedonia's madman" for Alexander the Great
 * "The Iron Lady" for Margaret Thatcher
 * "The Commentator" for Averroes (so named for his commentaries on "The Philosopher" Aristotle's works)
 * "The Amazing Amazon" for Wonder Woman
 * "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 Iron Chancellor" for Otto von Bismark
 * "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 Pele
 * "The King of Pop" for Michael Jackson
 * "The Queen of Pop" or "The Material Girl" for Madonna
 * "The First Lady of Song" for Ella Fitzgerald
 * "A young preacher from Georgia" for Martin Luther King (as used by Barack Obama in his victory speech)
 * "The Scottish play" for Macbeth
 * "The Steel Butterfly" for Imelda Marcos
 * "Il Duce" for Benito Mussolini
 * "The little corporal" for Napoleon I
 * "The Barcodes" 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" 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 Iosef 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

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 goupil was replaced by renard, from Renart, the fox hero of the Roman de Renart; originally German Reinhard.