rhetorical substitution of an epithet for a proper name (or vice versa; as in His Holiness for the name of a pope), 1580s, from Latin, from Greek antonomasia, from antonomazein "to name instead, call by a new name," from anti "instead" (see anti-) + onomazein "to name," from onoma "name" (from PIE root *no-men- "name"). Related: Antonomastic.