Koniye is divided into real, and the unreal group which are, linguistically, similar to the real ones but quite dissimilar in terms of kinship concept as prefixes like 'Abu' and 'Um', lose their original meaning as 'father' and 'mother', There are a great number of real koniyes in Arabic studied in detail by Arab writers which, however, are not aimed to be investigated in this article. The present study aims to investigate the koniye-like words from the point of view of structure and rhetoric. This linguistic device which extends human features into the world of animals, things, and abstract nouns, is ordinarily an attribute for the noun it modifies, consisting of a variety of images in its underlying structure replete with splendid instances of irony, metaphor, metonymy, simile, symbol, overstatement, and allusion. This kind of nickname which is also found in Persian has not been studied directly from the point of view of structure and rhetoric in neither language.
A systematic explanation of this linguistic concept can lead to a better understanding of its morphological features and determining its particular place in morphology and rhetoric.