metaphor
a term taken from ancient rhetoric for a "figure of speech". Metaphors are linguistic images that are based on a relationship of similarity between two objects or concepts; that is, based on the same or similar semantic features, a denotational transfer occurs, e.g. The clouds are crying for It's raining. Metaphor is also frequently described as a shortened comparison, in which the comparison is nonetheless not explicitly expressed. Metaphors may appear in the context of a sentence as nouns, verbs, or adjectives, e.g. bull's eye for center of the target, sharp criticism for strong criticism, to peel one's eyes for to watch out for something. In contrast to idioms, the literal reading of a metaphor (in a "positive" context) results in a contradiction. More recent approaches view metaphors not as a purely semantic phenomenon, but rather see them in connection with their use or establish them at the cognitive, conceptual level. Seen historically, metaphors are a source of new lexical formations in which the "transferred" meaning is either added to the original meaning (e.g. pansy "flower" or "effeminate male") or displaces the old meaning partially or completely (e.g. keen, which originally meant "bold, powerful"; blank originally "white"; crop originally "cluster, bunch, ear [of corn]"). In many cases, originally metaphoric denotations are no longer perceived as such.