Today’s WOTD – 22 October 2012

catachresis

[kat-uh-kree-sis]

noun

– misuse or strained use of words, as in a mixed metaphor, occurring either in error or for rhetorical effect.

– A rhetorical term for the inappropriate use of one word for another, or an extreme, strained, or mixed metaphor, often used deliberately. Adjective: catachrestic

For example:

‘It is a common catachresis in modern business writing to use utilise in place of use.’

‘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)

Today’s aphorism

‘Friends can help each other. A true friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself – and especially to feel. Or, not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine with them. That’s what real love amounts to – letting a person be what he really is’.

– Jim Morrison

On this day

22 October 1797 – Andre-Jacques Garnerin becomes the world’s first sky-diver after jumping out of a balloon above Paris.

22 October 1932 – Notorious gangster, Pretty Boy Floyd, shot to death by FBI agents in Ohio.