metalepsis

English

From Latin metalēpsis, from Ancient Greek μετάληψις (metálēpsis, “succession”).

From Ancient Greek μετα- (meta-), from μετά (metá), from Mycenaean Greek 𐀕𐀲 (me-ta), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *meth₂ (“in the middle”) and Ancient Greek λῆψις (lêpsis, “seizure”) and λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

metalepsis (countable and uncountable, plural metalepses)

(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".

strict sense

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