precentor

Pronounced: prih-SEN-tuhr, noun

Notes: I didn’t know that there was a word for this

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Yesterday’s word

The word metonymy is “a figure of speech in which someone or something is referred to be the name of somethings associated with it.”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1500s

Background / Comments

Some time ago, I posted the word “synecdoche”, which is a word with a similar meaning: in “synecdoche”, a part of something to refer to the whole (such as using “sails” to refer to ships). In our word, it is an associated thing that is used. One example is using “crown” to refer to the monarchy. Another one I’ve heard is “boots on the ground” to refer to soldiers being deployed. Our word came from the Latin word metonymia, which came from the Greek word metonymia (change of noun), which is made up of meta- (after; beyond) and onama (name). It is this latter bit that I recognized; I recognized the “nym” in our word as meaning “name”.