catachresis

How To Use catachresis In A Sentence

• [Sidenote: Catachresis.] _Abusio_, when for a certeyne and proper worde, we abuse a lyke, or that is nie vnto it, as when we say: longe counsel, lytle talke, smal matter. A Treatise of Schemes and Tropes
• Substituting catachresis for neologism lends the good historian another way of thinking about linguistic terms extralinguistically and the means to treat terms in thought-as if thinking, too, were an unexplored, historical datum.
• The OED defines catachresis as ‘(An instance of) the incorrect use of words’. Catachresis and the amusing, awful and artificial cathedral
• Rhetorical catachresis – ‘abuse or perversion of a trope or metaphor’ – is perhaps more precisely called abusio (hat tip to Language Log), but if we allow the looser definition it is typified by Shakespeare’s ‘To take arms against a sea of troubles’. Catachresis and the amusing, awful and artificial cathedral
• Definitional inconsistencies notwithstanding, catachresis is a fascinating feature of language. Catachresis and the amusing, awful and artificial cathedral
• From now on I shall try to avoid to call a catachresis, what after I’ve been moving to my last dwelling six feet under might be comme il fault. Catachresis and the amusing, awful and artificial cathedral
• Poetic licence aside, catachresis is often just a mistake, as we have seen, e.g. flaunt for flout, ecliptic for eclectic. Catachresis and the amusing, awful and artificial cathedral
• The word catachresis arrived, through the Latin word of the same spelling, from the Greek katakhrēsis, excessive use, from katakhrēsthai, to misuse or use up. Catachresis and the amusing, awful and artificial cathedral
• Some authorities describe catachresis as the deterioration of a word, but it can also be described more neutrally as semantic drift, which is an inescapable characteristic of any language. Catachresis and the amusing, awful and artificial cathedral
• This set of facts does not add up to an "aporia" or a "conceptual catachresis," as Guillory claims (215, 216); there is no logical impasse here — nor even a pragmatic or institutional one, as becomes obvious as soon as we broaden our horizon and look at the diverse kinds of critical projects that de Manian theory has in fact inspired over the last twenty years. Professing Literature: John Guillory's Misreading of Paul de Man