Talk:Dead metaphor

Sages[edit]

I have slightly edited what Andrew Goatly, a world expert on Metaphor has said. I do think my version is clearer: "Dictionaries are the burial grounds of dead metaphors; the dormitories for sleeping metaphors; the park benches for tired metaphors". (from Sages, 26/10/04)

Thanks for doing that. That quote, if it belongs anywhere, should be in the articles for dictionary or metaphor, but not here. -Willmcw 02:38, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Article is ridiculous[edit]

These examples are not even metaphors, let alone dead metaphors. Most of them are archaisms, which is an entirely different issue. I wish to overhaul the article. Markbenjamin (talk) 07:07, 4 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Examples[edit]

I don't see how understanding and mantel are dead metaphors. I'm not saying they aren't, just that as a lay reader I don't get the example. Kyle J Moore 18:22, 5 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree i have no idea how some of the examples listed are dead metaphors. someone should clarify Lue3378 09:27, 2 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Go to the Metaphor page and read that...example: "understand" = to stand underneath. "Mantel" i'm not so sure

A mantle, or Mantel in German, is a hooded cloak, which is a garment nobody wears anymore. A fireplace "mantel" was originally a "hood", a fixture that stuck out into the room to catch smoke. We still have "vent hoods" or "smoke hoods" over cooktops in large kitchens, and in laboratories. It's a dead metaphor because nobody associates the fireplace fixture, "mantel", with the garment, "mantle" ... all the more so because a modern fireplace "mantel" is no longer a smoke hood. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.146.9.94 (talk) 06:49, 24 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How is "flared jeans" a metaphor? Maybe the word flare used in this sense is a dead metaphor by itself, but as applied to jeans it is just a standard meaning of the word. MattCoon (talk) 13:34, 2 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fishing for compliments, seeds of doubt, and catch her name are not dead metaphors, they are simply metaphors.

The world wide web is literal.

Branches of government and kidney beans are just terms based on what they resemble.

"A regular metaphor is like "fishing for compliments", where you are not literally fishing, but are enacting something that metaphorically represents real "fishing".

A dead metaphor is like "pilot", which, according to the article, referenced a rudder, which it no longer represents.

Nikandros (talk) 01:07, 8 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand the article[edit]

The article is too short and does not explain enough. After reading it, I feel none the wiser regarding what a "dead metaphor" is. More explanation, please. SpectrumDT 18:11, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with you and all these other people. The examples make the brief article even less coherent. How is 'kidney bean' a dead metaphor? Is a kidney bean not the shape and color of a kidney? How is that "dead"? Almost all these examples seem to be describe still common uses. Promontoriumispromontorium (talk) 09:49, 18 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Agree with SpectrumDT, lo these (nearly) 5 years on. I expected to perhaps find an explanation of "uppercase" or "dial" (as in telephones, TVs) - unsure whether these are dead metaphors or not. Kidney beans? How is that a dead metaphor? -- Gyrofrog (talk) 16:37, 20 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Another example of what I'm told is a dead metaphor, again involving the telephone: we still say "the phone is ringing," though most telephones (and certainly all mobile phones) do not have actual bells. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 05:15, 16 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The examples should be Wikified[edit]

The examples should be Wikified, also I fail to see how the whole section on horse metaphors apply as most are quite obvious in origin. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.190.34.219 (talk) 10:15, 17 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

causes[edit]

I would add to the first sentence, "… or they refer to an obsolete technology or forgotten custom." Comment? —Tamfang (talk) 00:46, 14 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Seeing no objection … —Tamfang (talk) 23:48, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Is "to go belly up" really a dead metaphor?[edit]

"To go belly up" (used for example to describe businesses which go bankrupt) immediately conjures in my mind the image of a dead fish, floating belly up. Is this not how most people picture it, and if so, wouldn't this metaphor be very much alive? The andf (talk) 15:57, 15 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

mondegreens[edit]

Maybe something on homophones? I have in mind tow the line (for toe, i.e. to stand in formation) and straightjacket and straight-laced (for strait, an archaic word for narrow or tight). —Tamfang (talk) 00:00, 22 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]