Thesaurus of Traditional English Metaphors

2034 Pages·2006·7.53 MB·English

Thesaurus of TRADITIONAL ENGLISH
METAPHORS
Thesaurus of TRADITIONAL
ENGLISH METAPHORS
Second edition
P.R.WILKINSON

LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1993 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Second edition 2002
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York,
NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“ To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
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© 2002 P.R.Wilkinson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Wilkinson, P.R.(Peter Richard), 1926–
Thesaurus of traditional English metaphors/P.R.Wilkinson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical
references (p.) and index. 1. English language-Idioms-Dictionaries. 2. English language-Synonyms
and antonyms. 3. Figures of speech-Dictionaries. 4. Metaphor-Dictionaries.
PE1689.W56 2002 423′.1–dc21 2001048566
ISBN 0-203-21985-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-27497-0 (Adobe e-Reader Format)
ISBN 0-415-27685-3 (Print Edition)
To my wife, Joyce

The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be
learnt; and it is also a sign of genius.
[Aristotle, Poetics]

CONTENTS

Introduction ix
Acknowledgements xiv
List of abbreviations xvi

1
A TINKER
26
B TAILOR

70
C SOLDIER

130
D SAILOR

180
E RICHMAN

324
F POORMAN

383
G BEGGARMAN

505
H THIEF
534
I AT HOME

786
J AT SCHOOL

887
K AT PLAY

Bibliography 990
Index of themes 995
Index of keywords 1033

INTRODUCTION
Metaphor is a means of expressing one thing in terms of something else. It provides us
with a means of understanding the way language works, from the most common phrases
to the most complex linguistic theory. Indeed much current linguistic theory ascribes to
metaphor the organising principle behind all communication. In everyday life, metaphors
take many different forms, including similes (a nose as red as a cherry), proverbs (don’t
count your chickens before they’re hatched), transfer phrases (make heavy weather of…),
wellerisms (everyone to his taste, as they said when the old woman kissed the cow),
metonymy (the knife for surgery, the crown for royalty), synecdoches (sixty head of
cattle, a cut-throat) and swearing (bloody bugger!) where the curser’s feelings are
expressed in terms of what might justifiably have aroused those feelings. G.K.Chesterton
noted that ‘Keats never put into a sonnet so many remote metaphors as a coster puts into
a curse’. Clearly, metaphorical structures are present in a multitude of daily exchanges,
both verbal and written.
As the main purpose of this collection is to trace the origins of folk metaphor in
English, nearly all examples of metonymy, synecdoche and swearing have been omitted
as being too marginal or personal. Instances of metonymy especially, because of its
ephemeral, personal nature and multiplicity of applications—the ham-and-eggs is asking
for mustard—are uncollectable.
Metaphor is often used to warn or conceal from a third party—your barn door’s open.
In this category are all euphemisms, but they contain the seeds of their own decay. Many
good metaphors have therefore been excluded because of this inevitable ephemerality.
There are also two large groups which are not admissible as true metaphors because they
derive arbitrarily from sound-similarities without the necessary sense-relationship. These
are based on puns like camp as a row of tents, and on rhymes—plates of meat, Bristols
etc. Occasionally rhyme and reason happily coincide, as in skin-and-blister=sister, but
for true metaphors there must be some sense-connection, otherwise the substitute word or
phrase is merely used randomly or like a secret code.
Another group of metaphors excluded are the names of natural species such as
footman and emperor moths, lady’s slipper, shepherd’s purse, porpoise etc. These are all
virtual similes and are indeed ancient evidence of the nature of metaphor. Just as the
megalithic builders created useful relationships out of a bewilderingly varied
environment, keeping faith with the unity immanent within nature, so these name-givers,
through metaphor, bore witness to the same vision of a single reality shared by human
and natural communities. For this is the nature and force of metaphor: it arises only
because there is a relationship to be established between two different things, and its sole
function is to make the connection. In this way it reassures by bringing the unknown or
the fearsome into a familiar context. Whatever particular metaphors may say, the
overwhelming message of their totality is that we are all in one world and the
interconnections are everywhere. What Brown wrote about imagery is also relevant to