[Avodah] Drops of wine

[Simon Montagu]

On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 7:50 AM, Zev Sero <zev at sero.name> wrote:
> (This probably came about in exactly the same way that the bundle of
> aravos held during the hoshanos of the last day came to be called a
> "hoshana", the "monos" used for the mitzvah of "mishloach monos" came
> to be called "shalachmonos", the bread from which we take chalah came
> to be called "challah" (or in other places the bread on which we say
> brochos came to be called "barches"), an only child who is expected
> to eventually say kaddish came to be called a "kaddish", the booklet
> from which one reads kinnos came to be called a "kinnah", etc.  I'm
> sure RSM can supply many more examples, and also a linguistic term for
> this process, and perhaps also a list of other languages in which the
> same process occurs.)

I don't think I'm the RSM you are referring to, but I believe the
linguistic term is "metonymy", and the best source I know for more
about metonymies is James Thurber's "Here Lies Miss Groby", available
at http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1942/03/21/1942_03_21_014_TNY_CARDS_000188451
(for New Yorker subscribers) and also at
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/01/thurber-tonight-my-life-and-hard-times_13.html