metalepsis

[met-uh-lep-sis]

noun

Rhetoric.

plural

metalepses 

1. the use of metonymy to replace a word already used figuratively.

Other Word Forms

• metaleptic adjective
• metaleptical adjective
• metaleptically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of metalepsis¹

1580–90; < Latin < Greek metálēpsis, equivalent to meta- meta- + lēp-, variant stem of lambánein to take + -sis -sis

Example Sentences

Jewelry brand Metalepsis Projects is co-hosting a pop-up sale this weekend with fashion and accessory labels Cosette, Fuggiamo, Estilo Collective and Starling.

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They say that, according to Jerome, this Tower of the flock was situated in the immediate neighbourhood of Bethlehem; that it is used here only by way of a metalepsis for Bethlehem, and that Bethlehem again designates the Davidic race; so that the passage agrees altogether with v.

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In Greek, moreover, it is called Metalepsis, i.e.

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But the sence is much altered & the hearers conceit strangly entangled by the figure Metalepsis, which I call the farset, as when we had rather fetch a word a great way off then to vse one nerer hand to expresse the matter aswel & plainer.

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Thus is spoken by the figure of farre-set Metalepsis.

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