Metaphor lives a secret life all around us. We utter about one metaphor for every 10 to 25 words, or about six metaphors a minute.
Metaphor is intensely yet inconspicuously present in everything from ordinary conversation and commercial messaging to news reports and political speeches.
Aristotle defined metaphor as the process of “giving the thing a name that belongs to something else.”
Here are a few common metaphors and how to spot them.
The three stages of metaphor
Active metaphors are those still bubbling with figuration, as in early-20th-century artist and author Wyndham Lewis’s definition, “Laughter is the mind sneezing.”
Dormant metaphors, which tend to petrify into clichés, are those whose figurative nature slumbers just below the surface, as in the expression, “We’re getting in over our heads,” a metaphor equating potential trouble with the risk of drowning if you are out of your depth.
Extinct metaphors are those whose metaphorical magma will never rise again, as in the phrase, “I see what you mean.” You “see” absolutely nothing when you say this, but you do convey quite clearly that you understand what someone else is saying. This metaphor is also concealed in expressions like “I’m in the dark,” “Your argument is transparent” (or murky or opaque), “The explanation is crystal clear,”and “That really sheds light on the problem” — as well as in verbs like “concealed.”
Four common kinds of metaphor
The everyday expression
Whether you’re down in the dumps or riding high, on the straight and narrow or at a crossroads, cool as a cucumber or hot under the collar, you are fulfilling the classic Aristotelian definition of metaphor by giving the thing (your emotional state) a name that belongs to something else (waste storage facilities, well-paved thoroughfares, refrigerated vegetables).
“Belt Tightening Lies Ahead” is, unfortunately, a popular headline and a fascinating one because, taken as a whole, it is an obvious metaphor. But each word in the headline is a metaphor, too. “Belt tightening” is a metaphor for how households reduce spending because of dwindling amounts of disposable income. “Lies” is also a metaphor, because it metaphorically locates the abstract act of belt tightening (budget cutting) in physical space. “Ahead” is a metaphor, too, because it metaphorically conveys that the belt tightening will take place in the future by situating the constriction in the physical space in front of the reader. In this simple set of four words, there are three distinct metaphors.
Gestures can be metaphorical, too. Take the O.K. sign, formed by curling the thumb and forefinger into a ring with the other three fingers extended. This sign means “everything is fine” except in places like Tunisia (where it’s a threat), France and Belgium (where it means “zero”), and Germany and Brazil (where it’s a bodily orifice–related insult).
The spatial reference
Expressions like “I’m feeling up today” and “I’m high” derive from the metaphorical equation of happiness and height, while expressions like ‘I’m feeling down today” and “I’m low” derive from the metaphorical equation of dejection with depth. Why? Because we are literally up (i.e., vertical) when we are active, alert, and awake and we are literally down (i.e., horizontal) when we are sluggish, sleepy, or sick. Similarly, we associate “forward” with good things and “backward” with bad things, describing progress in difficult negotiations as “moving forward” and the return of unsavory personal practices as “going back to old habits.” We are happiest when the best is still ahead and the worst is already behind us. If our bodies were different, though, our metaphors would be different, too. Crabs walk sideways, for instance. If crabs could talk, they would undoubtedly describe progress in difficult negotiations as sidling toward agreement and express the hope for a better future by saying their best days are still beside them.
The paradox of metaphor is that it tells us so much about what a person, place, or thing is by telling us what that person, place or thing is not.
James Geary is the author of “I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World.”