catachresis

English

Alternative forms

Variant spellings[1] catechresis (17 th century, obsolete, now a misspelling), katachresis (17 th century)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin catachrēsis, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek κατάχρησις (katákhrēsis, “misuse (of a word)”).

Pronunciation

Noun

catachresis (plural catachreses)

  1. A misuse of a word; an application of a term to something which it does not properly denote.[1]
  2. (rhetoric) A misapplication or overextension of figurative or analogical description; a wrongly-applied metaphor or trope.[1]

Synonyms

Translations

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 “‖catachresis” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989]
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