[38]
It is the nature of metalepsis
to form a kind of intermediate step between the
term transferred and the thing to which it is transferred, having no meaning in itself, but merely
providing a transition. It is a trope with which to
claim acquaintance, rather than one which we are
ever likely to require to use. The commonest
example is the following: cano is a synonym
for canto and canto1 for dico, therefore cano is a
synonym for dico, the intermediate step being provided by canto.
1 In the sense of to repeat.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.