Note the terms highlighted in the sentences below:
- A wing of the cup broke.
- A leg of the table is crooked.
- My stove has sixmouths.
Can you notice the semantic mechanisms used for these terms to be used? It so happens that, for lack of a specific term to designate these parts of the objects mentioned in the sentences, we use others that have a conceptual similarity: wing (the shape of a wing), leg (which supports upright) and mouths (where we express ourselves, we put our energy in the world). Anyway, this stylistic feature is a figure of speech that manipulates words and is called catachresis. Thus, we define that:
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catachresis: is word picture which occurs when, in the absence of a specific term to designate a concept, another is used by borrowing from some similarity of meaning. |
Look at some more examples of this picture of words:
O nozzle the teapot was dirty.
THE potato of my leg was sore after the exercises.
She felt a pain in the foot of the belly.
The coffee burned the sky from my mouth.
By Mariana Rigonatto
Graduated in Letters
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
RIGONATTO, Mariana. "What is catachresis?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/portugues/o-que-e-catacrese.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
