Pars pro toto (Latin for 'a part (taken) for the whole'; /ˌpɑːrzproʊˈtoʊtoʊ/;[1]Latin:[ˈparsproːˈtoːtoː]),[2] is a figure of speech where the name of a portion of an object, place, or concept is used or taken to represent its entirety. It is distinct from a merism, which is a reference to a whole by an enumeration of parts; and metonymy, where an object, place, or concept is called by something or some place associated with it. It is a form of synecdoche, which can refer both to pars pro toto and its inverse, totum pro parte (Latin for 'the whole for a part').
In the context of language, pars pro toto means that something is named after a part or subset of it or after a limited characteristic, which in itself is not necessarily representative of the whole. For example, "glasses" is a pars pro toto name for something that consists of more than literally just two pieces of glass (the frame, nosebridge, temples, etc. as well as the lenses). Pars pro toto usage is especially common in political geography, with examples including "Russia" or "Russians", referring to the political institution (both historially and contemporary) or its people; "Holland" for the Netherlands; and, particularly in languages other than English, using the translation of "England" in that language to refer to Great Britain or the United Kingdom. Among English-speakers, "Britain" is a common pars pro toto shorthand for the United Kingdom.
An example of a pars pro toto in geography is the use of the capital to refer generally to the country such as Washington for the United States, Beijing for China, or Moscow for Russia. When the capital is used to refer specifically to the country's government, the figure of speech is a metonymy rather than a pars pro toto.
Certain place names are sometimes used as synecdoches to denote an area greater than that warranted by their strict meaning:
"The Balkans" to include historically related parts of southeastern Europe as well as the Balkan Peninsula, or for the countries that made up the former Yugoslavia
Java, for the main island and the surrounding islands (Madura, Thousand Islands, and hundred others) under the jurisdiction of the 6 provinces in Indonesia
Body parts are often colloquially used to refer to the whole body, as in:
"skin" ("save your skin")
"hide" ("the teacher will have my hide")
"mouth" ("mouth to feed")
"head" ("head count")
"face" ("famous faces")
"hand" ("all hands on deck")
"eyeballs" (television audience)
"guts" ("hate someone's guts")
"back" ("get off my back")
"brain" for intelligence or a smart person, as in "the class brain" or "the brains of the operation" or "where's your brain"
"neck" ("save one's neck")
"butt" or "ass", used to indicate a person's entire self or body ("get your butt on a plane" or "the boss fired my ass")
"body" for a whole person, as in "can't a body have some peace and quiet?"
"soul", meaning a whole person, as "don't tell a soul"
Subdivisions of companies
The names of affiliates or subdivisions of large corporations are sometimes used to refer to the entire corporation:
Chevrolet, Holden (in Oceania), or Opel (in Europe) to represent the entirety of General Motors, where using the most common GM brand in each region represents the entirety of General Motors
^"pars pro toto". Pars pro toto - definition of pars pro toto in English | Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford Living Dictionaries: English. Archived from the original on September 26, 2016. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
^"pars pro toto". Merriam-Webster. 2012-08-31. Retrieved 2014-02-03.
