Kitap 8
6.37
There is but one of the tropes involving change of meaning which remains to be discussed, namely, metalepsis or transumption, which provides a transition from one trope to another. It is (if we except comedy) but rarely used in Latin, and is by no means to be commended, though it is not infrequently employed by the Greeks, who, for example, call Χείρων the centaur Ἥσσων Χείρων and ἥσσων both mean inferior. and substitute the epithet θοαί (swift) for ὄξειαι cp. Od. xv. 298. Θοός is used elsewhere to express sharpness. in referring to sharp-pointed islands. But who would endure a Roman if he called Verres sus Verres =boar; Catus=wise. or changed the name of Aelius Catus to Aelius doctus?
6.38
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 canto In the sense of to repeat. for dico, therefore cano is a synonym for dico, the intermediate step being provided by canto.
6.39
We need not waste any more time over it. I can see no use in it except, as I have already said, in comedy.
