Magic Words

In anthropology, psychology, and cognitive science, the term magical thinking is used to describe causal reasoning that accords unwarranted weight to correlation or coincidence. It often includes such ideas as the ability of the mind to affect the physical world (see the philosophical problem of mental causation). Associative thinking may be brought into play, as well as the power of magical symbols, synchronicity, metaphor and metonym.

• metaphor: changing a word from its literal meaning to one not properly applicable but analogous to it; assertion of identity rather than, as with simile, likeness.
• metonymy: substitution of cause for effect, proper name for one of its qualities, etc.
• synecdoche: substitution of a part for whole, species for genus, etc
• "White hair" for an elderly person
• "Fingers" or "Legs" as a nickname
• "Wheels" referring to a car
• "A pair of hands" referring to a worker
• "Old Blue Eyes" to refer to Frank Sinatra
• "The White House" referring to the executive branch of the United States government