Similarly to rhizome, I appreciate your use of a word I hadn't seen in a long while (and that HN spellcheckers flag), and I agree this is much more interesting than the article, but I would have gone with something in {emblematic, symptomatic, representative}.
I'm holding firm in claiming that synecdoche should be reserved for referencing oral or written expressions, viz., intentional usages of a part to indicate the whole.
synecdoche: a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (such as fifty sail for fifty ships), the whole for a part (such as society for high society), the species for the genus (such as cutthroat for assassin), the genus for the species (such as a creature for a man), or the name of the material for the thing made (such as boards for stage)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche is probably the term, although the context in which "synecdoche" is used is generally analysis of literature / "English class."
Other way around - synecdoche usually refers to a whole through a part (calling an entire ship by just saying stern, for example) but a part through a whole is usually called metonymy. Synecdoche is a subset of metonymy.
Edit: the wikipedia article does mention that it can be a part through a whole. But this is at odds with my Classical background.
People might find it fun to know there is a literary term for this -- synecdoche!
> a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in Cleveland won by six runs (meaning “Cleveland's baseball team”)
(in this case, "circular saws" representing the whole class of dangerous power tools)
The word "synecdochic" exists and you can use it in this context, but it's a matter of lightning and lightning bug. Isn't the word "emblematic" more appropriate? We're not just using a part to signify the whole; we're stating that the part typifies the whole, and "emblematic" embodies both of those meanings. Besides, it's less likely to confuse, and applying Occam's razor to language, the best word is the simplest one that most closely approximates the intended meaning.
When people say "the crown" when referencing a monarch and their administration, that's a textbook synecdoche. Similarly, when people refer to the number of "seats" in an enterprise, as with a "10 seat license", that is also a synecdoche; obviously, the licensor could care less about seats per se; you pay even if you use a standing desk. :)
I am unapologetic about introducing this confusing word into the thread, as this discussion is more interesting than the blog post we're commenting on.
Corey Doctrow has a good term for this, or at least it’s him i heard say it: enshitification. I think it just captures the dynamics beautifully, it’s almost poetic.
An anecdote: when my semiotics professor talked about this composition for the first time, I was recording the lecture, and when colleagues asked for a copy, I sent them only the pauses between the sentences. When art meets sarcasm, it spreads really fast.
Or, you know, a utility-maximizing actor found it utility-increasing to place certain words into certain sequences in certain contexts due to the expected effect said arrangement would have upon the expected audience?
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