Metaphora

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable
2. A rhetorical device that involves describing one thing in terms of another to convey deeper meanings or associations
3. The artistic use of language to imply symbolic or analogous relationships between disparate concepts or entities

Etymology: Greek speakers built this term from "meta," meaning "across" or "over," and "pherein," meaning "to carry." Literally, a metaphora was a carrying across. The Greek word could describe moving goods from one place to another, and that physical sense is still present in it. Aristotle, in his "Poetics," defined the figure as the transfer of a name from one thing to another. When we call time a thief or a fog a blanket, we carry a word from its usual object over to a new one, and the listener must carry the resemblance back. The term came into English through Latin, which took the Greek word over with its meaning intact.

Synonyms: metaphor, figure of speech, analogy, allegory, simile