Obs. [ad. late L. transnōminātiōn-em, rendering Gr. μετωνυμία metonymy: see TRANS- and NOMINATION. Cf. F. transnomination (Littré).] A change of name; spec. in Rhet. = METONYMY.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. xiv. 94. When the Apostle exhorteth the Ephesians to remembre that they were forein gestes of the testamentes,… he saith, that they were not partakers of Circumcision. Whereby he doth (by figure of transnomination) signifie that they were excluded from the promise it self, which had not receiued the signe of the promise.
1675. Brooks, Gold. Key, Wks. 1867, V. 256. Oh, happy transnomination! Christ’s bride being one with himself … is called, ‘the Lord our righteousness.’
1715. Kettlewell, Chr. Obedience, ii An ordinary figure … which the rhetoricians call a metonomie or transnomination, and that is a transferring of a word, which is the particular name of one thing to express another.
