Is Kleenex (when talking about tissues) an example of Metonymy OR Synechdoche?
I loved Old Man’s “Hoovering,” and that’s a good example of why Kleenex represents synecdoche. Now, according to the definition, in order for something to be metonymy, it is not called by its own name (which would be tissue) but with something closely associated with its own name. So, something like “Tish-u-eze” or “Velvet Sneeze” could be metonymy, but so could Kleenex, because what we do with a tissue is clean ‘debris’ from our noses. The “Clean” has been substituted with “Kleen”– a contrived homophone — and the “ex” (normally a prefix) is being used as a suffix meaning “out.” Clean Out = Kleenex=tissue. It really seems to fit both definitions, doesn’t it? See these websites for some examples that may clarify.
