| pars pro toto |
| Definition:
A figure of speech where the whole is referred to by mentioning one of its parts. Note: Its opposite is totum pro parte, a figure of speech where the part is referred to by mentioning the whole. |
| Example: He's got great wheels (i.e., he's got a great car). |
| Etymology: In Latin the phrase means "a part for the whole." |
| Oxford English Dictionary: Its first citation is from 1702: "Synecdochical […] Pay, being a certain Figure in our avaritious … Rhetoric, by which there passes, pars pro Toto." (C. Mather Magn. Chr. vii. i. 5/2) |