metaphor

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French metaphore (Old French metafore, about 1275) and partly borrowed from Latin metaphora,^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek μεταφορά (metaphorá, “a transfer, especially of the sense of one word to another”),^[2][3][6][4] from μεταφέρω (metaphérō, “to carry over, transfer”),^[3][7][8] formed from μετά (metá, “over, across”) and φέρω (phérō, “to carry, bear”),^[3][6][8] from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”).^[3][8] The Greek word is thus, literally, "a carrying over",^[3][6] and is related to English bear.^[4][6] metafora (before 1375) and metáfora come from the same source.^[2] The early English form methaphor later took the classical spelling.^[4][8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to something it does not literally mean, to suggest a likeness: about 1477, in Thomas Norton's Ordinal of Alchemy,^[2][4] as the plural methaphoris.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense of a figure of speech since the 15th century.^[2][9] Johnson (1755) called it a simile packed into a single word, with examples such as he bridles his anger.^[10] From 1836, in Emerson's Nature, it was also used for something that stands for something else, especially a material thing that represents an abstract idea; a symbol.^[2] The phrase mixed metaphor is recorded in the Shorter Oxford,^[9] and Weekley uses it for a ludicrous jumble of images.^[11] The adjective metaphorical is recorded from before 1555.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – Old French metafore.^[2]
• c. 1477 – a figure of speech transferring a word to another object.^[2][4]
• before 1555 – metaphorical.^[4]
• 1836 – a symbol of something else.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase for one thing is used of another to suggest that they are alike, without like or as: Calling the classroom a zoo is a metaphor.
2. Something used to stand for something else; a symbol: The empty house became a metaphor for his loneliness.
3. Such figures of speech in general; figurative language.

Word family

• metaphoric
• metaphorically
• metaphoricalness
• dead metaphor
• mixed metaphor

Related words

• simile
• analogy
• bear
• meta-

Usage notes

A metaphor is usually set against a simile, which states the comparison openly.^[12][10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins