Monday, November 06, 2006

gestalt

gestalt - noun - a configuration, pattern or organized field having specific properties that cannot be derived from the summation of its component parts; a unified whole

synecdoche

synecdoche – n - A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special.

Prime examples would be the popular Civil War command to give the enemy the "cold steel" (general), meaning to use the bayonet (particular); the naval command "All 'hands' (part) on deck," meaning all crew men (whole) on deck; etc.