Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun semantics The relationship of being a constituent part or member of something; a system of
meronyms .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the semantic relation that holds between a part and the whole
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From mero- + -nym (from Ancient Greek μέρος (meros, "part") + ὄνομα (onoma, "name")) + -y (“suffix forming abstract noun”); compare meronym.
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Examples
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gangerh commented on the word meronymy
from 'meros' part + 'nym' name
October 26, 2022
gangerh commented on the word meronymy
For example, 'handle' is a meronym of 'door' and 'door' is a meronym of 'house', yet it sounds odd to say "The house has a handle" or "The handle is part of the house." Such failures of transitivity may indicate that different part-whole relations are involved in the two cases. For example, "The branch is part of the tree" and "The tree is a part of a forest" do not imply that "The branch is a part of the forest" because the 'branch-tree' relation is not the same as the 'tree-forest' relation. The 'handle-house' example fails because "part of" is used where "attached to" would be more appropriate. The "part of" relation should be transitive whereas the "attached to" relation clearly is not - your toe is attached to your foot and your foot is attached to your leg. "The house has a door handle" is acceptable because it negates the implicit reference in "The house has a handle" that the handle is attached to the house.
The Science Of Words - George A. Miller
October 26, 2022