Naming Paris the City of Light is an example of antonomasia.
The concept of antonomasia comes from the Latin word antonomasĭa , which in turn derives from the Greek antonomasía . An antonomasia is a type of synecdoche that involves referring to someone through one of their qualities, or naming a quality through the proper name of the person who has it.
It should be remembered that the idea of synecdoche belongs to the field of rhetoric : it is a trope (the change of one expression for another that has a figurative meaning) that designates one element with the name of another.
Examples of antonomasia
In this way we can say that antonomasia is a trope or, more specifically, a synecdoche. An example of antonomasia occurs when someone mentions the City of Light to name Paris . In this case, instead of referring to the capital of France by name, reference is made to its quality as a pioneer in the development of lighting in public spaces (or even its status as a cultural “lighthouse” ).
If we focus on the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance, we will notice that very frequently people spoke of "the Philosopher" to refer to Aristotle, one of the most outstanding figures of Ancient Greece, thanks to his invaluable contributions in fields such as logic and philosophy . Given that Aristotle's ideas exerted an immense influence in the West that transcended time and space, valid even to this day, it is right that his person is considered synonymous with a thinker.
Referring to a man of great physical beauty as an adonis is also an antonomasia. The figurative meaning arises from the mythological character Adonis , son of Cíniras and Mirra who stood out for his beautiful appearance.
Another example of this use, the opposite of the previous one, is frequently given in reference to Adolf Hitler and his unspeakable acts of cruelty, which left an indelible scar on the history of humanity. Since this unfortunate character showed us that the evil of human beings seems to have no limit, it is not unusual to use his name as a synonym for bloodthirsty dictator .
The first person to have distinguished and established the use of this kind of antonomasia was Gérard Jean Vossius, a 16th century university professor from the Netherlands dedicated to teaching philosophy, theology, the Greek language and history. For this reason, it is correct to mention it under the name antonomasia vossiana . Although these are common nouns , they can also be capitalized and act as proper nouns.
In ancient times, Aristotle was referred to as The Philosopher par excellence.
an adverbial phrase
The expression “par excellence” , on the other hand, is an adverbial phrase that is used to mention a thing or a subject through an appellation that denotes that, among elements of the same class, it is the most relevant or known. When someone speaks of “the virgin” it is understood that, par excellence, they are referring to the Virgin Mary .
The use of this expression is common in everyday speech to exalt the abilities of certain very gifted people, as well as to condemn the reprehensible attitudes of those who exhibit them in a way that is impossible to ignore. As can be seen, the range of cases that this term can cover, specifically when saying par excellence , is very wide.
Let's look at some sentences in which what was stated in the previous paragraph is clearly noted: "Barbra Streisand is the singer par excellence" , "I could not trust this company, since they are criminals par excellence" . If we wanted to express the same ideas in other words, we could say that "there is no singer with a voice as wonderful as Barbra Streisand" or that "this company is famous for scamming its customers in every way possible."