NAMES are everywhere, but it may seem like names are only given to people. You can call a person “Ben”, “Tom” or “Richard”, but you would never call a car or a chair by name. But while names may just seem like a collection of sounds, they can actually have meanings.

“Richard”, for example, is made up of old German words – “Rik” and “Hardu”, which mean “ruler” and “strong” respectively. So Richard could mean “strong ruler“. Many names have clear meanings like that, which is why parents think hard of what a name means or represents. Everyone likes the name Alexander, since this is the same name as the famous military leader of antiquity.

Many people are also named after flowers or plants, usually in English. Consider “Rose”, “Daisy”, or perhaps “Ivy”. But they do not have to be English words all the time. “Edelweiss” is the German name for a flower grown in Germany, while “Lanhua” is an alternative to being named “orchid”.

While you may not think of it, cities and towns can also get people’s names. Consider Saint Petersburg in Russia – a “burg” is an old way of saying “town”, so this is just saying “the town called Saint Peter”. In the US, there is Georgetown, which is even more on the nose.

Credits: Issue 01, 29 September 2022 (Thursday) by Quest from hkej

1. collection (n) 收藏品

2. respectively (adv) 各自的

3. ruler (n) 統治者

4. antiquity (n) 古代

5. alternative (n) 可供選擇的事物

6. nose (idm) 準確無誤

SAY you are reading Romeo and Juliet and someone asks what you are looking at. You could reply “I am reading Shakespeare”, but why use an entirely different word? This is metonymy: where one concept is used to describe a closely related one.

Think of how people use “Hollywood” to describe the US film industry. It might just be a place, but because so many studios are at that area, Hollywood now means all film-related business that happens there. In politics, a nation’s capital can also refer to its government: “Washington” means the US government, and “Beijing” can refer to China’s.

Credits: Issue 01, 29 September 2022 (Thursday) by Quest from hkej

Metonymy is when a word or phrase is used to represent or refer to something closely associated with it, but not the same thing.

1. Press – “The press is eager for a statement.” Here, “press” stands for journalists or the media industry as a whole.

2. Books – “I need to hit the books.” Here, “books” is used to represent studying or academic work.

3. Dish – “The dish was delicious”. In this case, “dish” is used to refer to the entire meal or the food being served.

4. White House – “The White House issued a statement”. In this example, “White House” is used to refer to the President or the executive branch of the United States government.

5. Check – “The check arrived, and I paid the bill”. In this example, “check” is used to refer to the restaurant bill or the total amount owed.

Below are links to free English Language Learning Materials:

BBC English

Speak Street Worksheet

British Council Learn English

Caro Kowanz English