: Re: Combining an idiom with a metonymy I am not sure if this is possible. I would like to use a metonymy with an idiom, and it doesn't seem to be something people ever did, so it feels wrong.

@Angela458

Vote Up Vote Down

I don't think the problem is the combination, it is the unfamiliar metonymy. The use of "fedora hats" to mean "Mafia family" is just not common enough for the reader not to be thrown out of the text, saying "What did that mean" and probably coming to a wrong answer. If a more familiar metonymy with a bit of context is used, such as:

It was election night. He was in the middle of the elephants celebrating our victory.

Where "the elephants" is being used to mean "members of the Republican party" -- a very comon expression, mostly in visual cartoons, I think it works.

If there is extra context, if "fedora hats" has previously been established to have this meaning in this story it might work. Or even:

All the Family was there, particularly Frank. He was in the middle of our Fedora Hats celebrating our victory.

might work.

I might add, there really isn't much of an idiom here.

(0)

Login to post a comment!