Down in meta-words, I posted a list containing word "chatelaine". This I recognized
as French for a lady in charge of a chateau or similar large important dwelling place,
as far at responsibility for security, supervision of servants, etc. So imagine my
surprise at seeing it defined as a key ring, on which the keys to the estate might
be kept. It is obviously a metaphor, but the reverse of the usual kind. Yet dictionary
defintion of "synecdoche" = name of part = whole, says "or reverse".
So is synecdoche the right word in this case? Or is there a better word for it?

Please comment.

It seems like the reverse of referring to the ruler as the throne or the president as the White House, whatever that's called. I went traipsing through the Forest and found nothing that seemed to cover it.

I can see that the keys to the estate were in effect the chatelaines badge of office, and the only
thing important about her, so the keys to the estate could be called " the chatelaine".
But I can't see the term referring to just any keyring. And I can't think of a parallel.

Transference?

Dear Jackie: I found a site about metaphor and transference, but it gave me an instant headache.
http://csmaclab-www.cs.uchicago.edu/philosophyProject/goodman/nominalism.html

Indeed, that piece is arcane. I wonder if the author saw the Star Trek episode Darmok, where the alien race spoke entirely in metaphors--which were of course incomprehensible to those with no frame of reference. The Enterprise crew's response to them was like mine to Shakespeare: understanding the individual words, but still the whole makes no sense.

So what's up with this? Every time I hear this song, I break my brain Hi, moose! trying to figure out why she "becomes Miss Chatelaine"

Miss Chatelaine
k.d. lang/Ben Mink
Just a kiss just a kiss
I have lived just for this
I can't explain why I've become
Miss Chatelaine

Just a smile just a smile
Hold me captive just a while
I can't explain why I've become
Miss Chatelaine

Every time your eyes meet mine
Clouds of qualm
Burst into sunshine

Just a sigh just a sigh
Words my love just reply
I can't explain why I 've become
Miss Chatelaine
Miss Chatelaine

Zing!!

Just a smile just a smile
Hold me captive just a while
I can't explain why I've become
Miss Chatelaine

Every time your eyes meet mine
Clouds of qualm
Burst into sunshine

Just a kiss just a kiss
I have lived just for this
I can't explain why I've become
Miss Chatelaine

Miss Chatelaine
Miss Chatelaine
Miss Chatelaine
Miss Chatelaine

Seems like she can't explain it either, consuelo!

Perhaps, she feels like she has become the chatelaine of his heart!

Every good housewife is a chatelaine who makes a house a home,, and holds all the keys
including the one to the heart of her husband if he is good for anything and has any brains
at all. So it should be Mrs. Chatelaine.
But not every keyring deserves to be called a chatelaine. That name should be special.

But not every keyring deserves to be called a chatelaine. That name should be special.

Aye, Aye, captain!! Now, if only we would all understand and trust that it is all about keys and not about the purse strings!