metalepsis

English

From Latin metalēpsis, from Ancient Greek μετάληψις (metálēpsis, “succession”), from Ancient Greek μετά (metá, “after”) 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