Metaphor
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For other uses, see Metaphor (disambiguation).
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Metaphor is the concept of understanding one thing in terms of another. A metaphor is a figure of speech that constructs an analogybetween two things or ideas; the analogy is conveyed by the use of a metaphorical word in place of some other word. For example: "Her eyes were glistening jewels".
Metaphor also denotes rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via association, comparison or resemblance (e.g., antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and simile, which are all types of metaphor).[1]
The English metaphor derives from the 16th century Old French métaphore, from the Latin metaphora "carrying over", Greek (μεταφορά) metaphorá “transfer”,[2] from (μεταφέρω) metaphero “to carry over”, “to transfer”[3] and from (μετά) meta “between”[4] + (φέρω) phero, “to bear”, “to carry”.[5]
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[edit] Types, terms and categories
Metaphors are comparisons that show how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in one important way. A metaphor is more forceful (active) than an analogy, because metaphor asserts two things are the same, whereas analogy implies a difference; other rhetorical comparative figures of speech, such as metonymy, parable, simile and synecdoche, are species of metaphor distinguished by how the comparison is communicated.[1] The metaphor category also contains these specialised types:
- allegory: An extended metaphor wherein a story illustrates an important attribute of the subject
- catachresis: A mixed metaphor used by design and accident (a rhetorical fault)
- parable: An extended metaphor narrated as an anecdote illustrating and teaching a moral lesson.
Use outside of rhetoric
The term metaphor is also used for the following terms that are not a part of rhetoric:
- A cognitive metaphor is the association of an object to an experience outside the object's environment.
- A conceptual metaphor is an underlying association that is systematic in both language and thought.
- A root metaphor is the underlying worldview that shapes an individual's understanding of a situation.
- A therapeutic metaphor is an experience that allows one to learn about more than just that experience.
- A visual metaphor provides a frame or window on experience. Metaphors can also be implied and extended throughout pieces of literature.