# Name of a rhetorical device **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 16, 2019, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-a-rhetorical-device/841878 "2019-10-16T23:53:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-a-rhetorical-device/841878/1 "2019-10-16T23:53:22Z")
I can explain, my stylebooks that have the answer to this are inaccessible, due to a no-longer-used drum set blocking a certain bookcase. I’m looking for the name of the rhetorical device where you substitute a name for a real name, for instance you don’t know a person’s name so you refer to her as Goth Girl, or Blondie, or something other than what her name is. I think there is a different name for the device where you don’t know a person but define that person by a characteristic, and when you do know that person and give them a nickname. The one for the unknown name is what I’m looking for. PS: I did try Googling it, but did not get the word I remember for this verbal device. Please help, I do not want to dis-assemble and move that damn drum set and this is driving me crazy. ---
**Author:** ![mjmlabs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mjmlabs/32/69_2.png) [@mjmlabs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmlabs)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-a-rhetorical-device/841878/2 "2019-10-17T00:19:19Z")
Metonymy? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-a-rhetorical-device/841878/3 "2019-10-17T09:26:24Z")
Antonomasia or sobriquet, the former is more the rhetorical device name, I think. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-a-rhetorical-device/841878/4 "2019-10-17T09:37:32Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Antonomasia or sobriquet, the former is more the rhetorical device name, I think. Although those are the general sense, for the specific case of not knowing the actual name, I can’t think of anything more formal than “placeholder name”. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placeholder_name) seems to think “cadigan” is an equivalent term but I don’t think it’s a formal name for it. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-a-rhetorical-device/841878/5 "2019-10-19T23:36:05Z")
Yes! Antonomasia. I went through “metonymy” and “synecdoche” which are a couple that I happen to remember the names of and I kept thinking, “No, it starts with A…” Thanks! PS: I first heard the word “sobriquet” when I was 10 and buying a horse. As the seller was saddling her up for my test ride he said, “Her name is Sobriquet, but we call her Spooky.” Many horses have an official name and a barn name, so I thought nothing of it at the time, and I always called her Spooky. Many years later [well, about six, seemed like many at the time], in English class, I learned the term “sobriquet” and at first I felt bad about missing the joke. And then I wondered if this ranch hand had actually been making a joke. Because knowing words like “sobriquet” is not really what you think of, when you think of Oklahoma cowboy ranch hands. Although I think he may have pronounced it wrong. It’s probably “so-brickay” and not “so-briquette.” ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2019, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-a-rhetorical-device/841878/6 "2019-10-20T01:58:54Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > It’s probably “so-brickay” and not “so-briquette.” Yes, “so-brickay”, with the accent on the first syllable. ---
**Author:** ![Crossbreed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@Crossbreed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crossbreed)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-a-rhetorical-device/841878/7 "2019-10-21T00:28:39Z")
I was thinking “epithet…”