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Monday
21Nov

Pimp My Hair

DateMonday, November 21, 2005 at 08:16AM

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?"

AuthorFigaro | Comment6 Comments |

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Reader Comments (6)

That's hardly puzzling. Why Tom and Ray are an aural cornucopia of such aspiration — although I doubt the Dialectizer* has jived them out.

*http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/dialectp.cgi?dialect=jive&url=http://www.figarospeech.com
November 22, 2005 | Unregistered CommenterStyles
We practiced synecdoche in schenectady.
November 23, 2005 | Unregistered CommenterGeorge
So where will an anthimeria carrya?
November 23, 2005 | Unregistered CommenterFigaro
Old enough? Heck -- I'm even old enough to remember when she went by the name Helen Reddy.
October 29, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterBruce
I didn't know she had any other name!
November 9, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterRobin
You know Otis's sister is still sitting on the dock
November 20, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterBernard

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