Mixed metaphor and catachresis
Parent: Mixed metaphors and catachresis as signs of reflexive figurative language · Published reference · snapshot 2026-09-23
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Source-anchored research for Mixed metaphor and catachresis. Run status: COMPLETED.
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How it works
- Quintilian (Institutio Oratoria 8.6.34-35) defines catachresis (abusio) as adapting the nearest available term for something with no proper term, and distinguishes it from metaphor, which is used when another term is available. (medium confidence) [source]
- Catachresis has several senses in current usage: categorical boundary crossing when no term exists (chair 'legs'), sound-alike substitution (ravished for famished), strained extension (Shakespeare's 'deepest winter in Lord Timon's purse'), and vaguer synonym substitution (job-seeker for unemployed). (low confidence) [source]
Measurements and reference values
- Kimmel (Journal of Pragmatics, 2010) analysed a corpus of British newspaper commentaries on the 2004/05 EU referenda (2,574 metaphors) and reports mixed metaphors at 39-62% of metaphors, with almost all ontologically mixed clusters comprehensible; he argues mixing is cognitively successful because it covers different aspects of a target domain. Figures are from search-result abstracts; the paper page returned HTTP 403. (low confidence) [source]
Problems, failure modes and limitations
- Merriam-Webster defines a mixed metaphor as a figure of speech combining inconsistent or incongruous metaphors, and lists it beside catachresis as strained use of words that may occur in error or for rhetorical effect. (low confidence) [source]
- A mix of metaphors is therefore not by itself evidence of error or machine authorship: classical rhetoric permits catachresis where no term exists, and corpus work finds human mixing is common and usually coherent. (low confidence) [source]
Facts and statements
- Quintilian (8.6.50) warns that many writers begin a figure with a tempest and end with a fire or a falling house, producing a hideously incongruous effect, and says never to mix metaphors. (low confidence) [source]
Children
- No children recorded.