Metaphor actually lives a secret life all around u.s.

We tend to think of metaphor—equating one matter with some other, as in Shakespeare'south line "Juliet is the sun"—as something that only happens in poetry. But metaphor actually lives a hole-and-corner life all around u.s.. According to i study, we utter nigh one metaphor for every x to twenty-v words, or well-nigh six metaphors a infinitesimal.

I call back that is a gross (pardon the metaphor) underestimate. Accept (there'due south another metaphor) this typical newspaper headline:

'Belt tightening lies alee'

This is a fascinating headline because, taken every bit a whole, information technology is an obvious metaphor. But each word in the headline is a metaphor, too.

"Belt tightening" is a conventional metaphor for how households reduce spending because of dwindling amounts of disposable income.

But the word "lies" is likewise a metaphor, because it metaphorically locates the abstract act of chugalug tightening (budget cutting) in physical space.

"Belt tightening" is a conventional metaphor for how households reduce spending.

The discussion "ahead" is a metaphor, too, because it metaphorically conveys that the belt tightening will take place in the future past situating the constriction in the physical space in front of the reader.

In this simple gear up of iv words, there are iii singled-out metaphors at piece of work.

Still non convinced? Look (another metaphor) no farther than the common expressions we use every mean solar day. Whether you lot're down in the dumps or riding high , on the straight and narrow or at a crossroads , cool as a cucumber or hot under the neckband , you are using metaphor.

The word 'metaphor' is, of course, a metaphor itself.

Derived from the Greek roots meta (over, across, or beyond) and phor (to behave), the literal pregnant of metaphor is "to carry across." A metaphor carries across associations, connotations and meanings from 1 thing to another.

A metaphor carries across associations, connotations and meanings from ane thing to another.

Even the word 'literal'—derived from the Latin litera , meaning 'letter' — is a metaphor. 'Literal' ways 'according to the letter of the alphabet'; that is, bodily, authentic, factual. But litera is, in turn, derived from the verb linire , meaning 'to smear', and was transferred to litera when authors began smearing words on parchment instead of etching them into wood or stone.

Thus, the literal meaning of 'literal' is to smear or spread, a fitting metaphor for the way metaphor oozes over rigid definitional borders.

Metaphor is nowadays in everything

Metaphor is present in everything from ordinary conversation and commercial messaging to news reports and political speeches. Language is so rife with figurative phrases considering metaphor is nearly more than just words.

Nosotros think metaphorically. Metaphorical thinking is the way nosotros make sense of the world, and it's essential to how we communicate, acquire, observe, and invent.

Many metaphors equate a physical feel with an intellectual, emotional or psychological experience. Without the metaphor, we take no manner of communicating about ideas, feelings, concepts or anything abstract.

Metaphorical thinking is the way we make sense of the earth.

The "seeing = knowing" metaphor is a case in point: "I'one thousand in the dark," "Your argument is transparent" (or murky or opaque), "The explanation is crystal clear," and "That really sheds lite on the problem."

See what I hateful?

Metaphors are like volcanoes

One mode to understand metaphors is to classify them like volcanoes.

One style to sympathize metaphors is to classify them like volcanoes - active, dormant and extinct.

Agile metaphors are those still bubbling with figuration, as in early twentieth-century artist and author Wyndham Lewis's definition: Laughter is the mind sneezing.

Dormant metaphors, which tend to petrify into clichés, are those whose figurative nature slumbers just below the surface, equally in the expression: We're getting in over our heads.

Extinct metaphors are those we don't recognize as metaphors anymore, those whose metaphorical magma will never rise once again, as in the phrase: I see what y'all mean.

Wait at and listen to the language around you

In that location is a steady stream of metaphor coursing through the way we talk nigh coin, for case.

Liquidity is the ability to quickly convert assets into cash. A business firm is solvent when it has enough of liquid assets . Cash menses occurs at the confluence of revenue streams . A company floats shares in an initial public offering. Banks go bailed out when they are as well big to neglect. When you need money, you tin tap a friend, sponge off relatives, dip into savings, or skim a little something off the top.

The power and paradox of metaphor is that it tells usa so much most a affair past telling usa what that thing is non. Look at and listen to the language around you and you will discover a moveable feast of metaphor at work.

James Geary is the author of I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Fashion We See the World.

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