Definition:
The inappropriate use of one word for another, or an extreme, strained, or mixed metaphor, often used deliberately. Adjective: catachrestic . See also: metaphor.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "misuse" or "abuse"Examples and Observations:
- "To take arms against a sea of troubles."
(William Shakespeare, Hamlet) - "Red trains cough Jewish underwear for keeps! Expanding smells of silence. Gravy snot whistling like sea birds."
(Amiri Baraka, The Dutchman) - "Attentive readers will have noticed a lamentable catachresis yesterday, when the Wrap referred to some French gentlemen as Galls, rather than Gauls."
(Sean Clarke, The Guardian, June 9, 2004) - "The moon was full. The moon was so bloated it was about to tip over. Imagine awakening to find the moon flat on its face on the bathroom floor, like the late Elvis Presley, poisoned by banana splits. It was a moon that could stir wild passions in a moo cow. A moon that could bring out the devil in a bunny rabbit. A moon that could turn lug nuts into moonstones, turn little Red Riding Hood into the big bad wolf."
(Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker) - "The hallmark of the [Thomas] Friedman method is a single metaphor, stretched to column length, that makes no objective sense at all and is layered with other metaphors that make still less sense. The result is a giant, gnarled mass of incoherent imagery. When you read Friedman, you are likely to encounter such creatures as the Wildebeest of Progress and the Nurse Shark of Reaction, which in paragraph one are galloping or swimming as expected, but by the conclusion of his argument are testing the waters of public opinion with human feet and toes, or flying (with fins and hooves at the controls) a policy glider without brakes that is powered by the steady wind of George Bush’s vision."
(Matt Taibbi, "A Shake of the Wheel")
Pronunciation: KAT-uh-KREE-sis
