metalepsis

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English

Etymology

From Latin metalēpsis, from Ancient Greek μετάληψις (metálēpsis, “succession”), from Ancient Greek μετά (metá, “after”) and λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

Noun

metalepsis (countable and uncountable, plural metalepses)

  1. (rhetoric) A rhetorical device whereby one word is metonymically substituted for another word which is itself a metonym; more broadly, a metaphor consisting of a series of embedded metonyms or rhetorical substitutions.
Examples (serial application of tropes)

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships
and burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
- Chistopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus
Face is a metonymy for "person" or "woman" (Helen), a metonymy for Paris's motivation, casus belli for the Trojan War (metaphorically, "launched a thousand ships"), which led to the sacking of Troy, metonymically invoked by "burnt the topless towers of Ilium".

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