Etymology

synecdoche

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Today it means: A figure of speech that uses the name of a part of something to represent the whole, or the whole to represent a part, or a specific kind or instance to represent the general category, or the general category to represent a specific kind or instance, or the constituent material to represent the thing made from it. Full definition →

Latin synecdochē ← Ancient Greek συνεκδοχή
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromσυνεκδοχή“receiving together”
  2. Latin · borrowed fromsynecdochē
  3. English todaysynecdoche

Borrowed from Latin synecdochē, from Ancient Greek συνεκδοχή (sunekdokhḗ, “receiving together”) from σύν (sún, “with”) + ἐκ (ek, “out of”) + δέχεσθαι (dékhesthai, “to accept”), this last element related to δοκέω (dokéō, “to think, suppose, seem”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.