metonymy (n.): a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated (as “crown” in “lands belonging to the crown”)

The inimitable Martin M. introduced me to this word a couple of years back. It’s a priceless gem of a word, a proud member of a category of priceless gems: those words that indicate things we use every day but had no idea were defined as concepts. (Cf. dysphemism.)

Metonymy is all around us — wherever newscasters refer to relations with the Kremlin, wherever we can’t get people out of our heads, wherever Ringo Starr asks us to lend him our ears, metonymy is there. But because I live immersed in capitalism and surrounded by financiers, the metonymy nearest and dearest to my heart is “Wall Street” as used to mean the institution of high finance.

When Yale student Aleksey Vayner sent his hilarious and absurd video resume to UBS a few months back, he became both an Internet sensation and, as a friend at Morgan Stanley put it, “the laughingstock of Wall Street.” And rightfully so, of course, because Mr. Vayner appears to be totally irony-free, which makes him a front-running contender for Year’s Biggest, Wettest Douche. But let’s reflect for a moment on the usage of “Wall Street,” considering that of all my acquaintances in the world of finance, none of them works on Wall Street — they all work in Midtown. Morgan Stanley is at 47th and Broadway; J.P. Morgan is at 48th and Park; UBS itself has two Midtown offices, at 1285 6th Ave and just up the block from J.P. Morgan on Park.

I’ve gotten bored with this topic since I started it. Did you know there are 4.5 million people in Calcutta on only 33 square miles of land? That’s approximately the same population density as if you took all 8-million-some-odd people in the five boroughs of New York and made them all live on Manhattan.