Allusion

Allusion is a stylistic device or trope, in which one refers covertly or indirectly to an object or circumstance that has occurred or existed in an external context. It is left to the reader or hearer to make the connection (Fowler); an overt allusion is a misnomer for what is simply a reference. In the most traditional sense, allusion is a literary term, though the word also has come to encompass indirect references to any source, including film, art, or real events. In the field of film criticism, a film-maker's unspoken visual reference to another film has come to be called an homage.

A sobriquet is an allusion.

Allusion is an economical device, a figure of speech that draws upon the ready stock of ideas or emotion already associated with a topic in a relatively short space. Thus, an allusion is understandable only to those with prior knowledge of the reference in question. (See Cultural literacy.)

Allusion differs from the similar term intertextuality in that it is an intentional effort.