Pimp My Hair
Monday, November 21, 2005 at 08:16AM
Figaro

pimpbluehair.jpgQuote:
"Who knew so many pimps were wannabe bluehairs?" -- John
"Who knew so many bluehairs were wannabe pimps?" -- Jeanne
Nominating the Chrysler 300 as "ugliest car" on the 'Car Talk'  website.

Figure of Speech:  synecdoche  (sin ECK dokee), the scale-changing figure.

"Bluehairs" refers to old ladies, not strangely dyed hairs, right?  That's what makes "bluehairs" a synecdoche ("taking one thing with another")  -- a word that swaps a part for the whole or vice versa.  The word on the street is a synecdoche.  (Two of 'em, actually: "word" and "street.")

The figure also swaps a genus for a species, or a species for a genus.  If you're old enough to have heard Helen Redding sing her delicately understated "I am Woman, hear me roar," you experienced a synecdoche.

Snappy Answer:   "Who knew 'Car Talk' listeners could tell what a pimp was?"

Article originally appeared on Figures of Speech (http://inpraiseofargument.com/).
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