metaphor and simile

metaphor and simile

1. The difference between these two figures of speech, which together constitute a major element of English idiom, is largely one of form. A simile is a fanciful comparison couched in a form introduced by as or like, for example Byron's line The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, whereas a metaphor directly equates the image with the person or thing it is compared to: Achilles was a lion in the fight. Many figurative uses of words (e.g. the mouth of a river, a blanket of fog, music to one's ears) and many idioms (e.g. get the green light, have one foot in the grave, take the rough with the smooth, off the wall) can be regarded as metaphors.

2. A type of metaphor that always arouses derision is the mixed metaphor, in which two incompatible images are combined: He has been made a sacrificial lamb for taking the lid off a can of worms / In coal mines, mice are used as human guinea pigs (both examples from letters pages of The Times)

• They are trying to shift the goalposts on one of their own flagship targets —Independent, 2003

• The grass roots are pretty cheesed off —BBC Radio news, 1999

• Europe's Central Bank should take its head out of the sand and call a spade a spade —Wall Street Journal, 2001.

A similar if less vivid kind of absurdity can be caused by combining figurative uses in which the corresponding physical senses merge to present an alternative picture, as in taking concrete steps (cited by Gowers) and grass-roots consumers. In the hurly-burly of rapid speech, such disasters are bound to occur, but they can be avoided in more considered or formal language use when there is time to reflect on what is being said.