Simile (pronounced sim-uh-lee)
(1) A figure of speech expressing the
resemblance of one thing to another of a different category usually introduced
by as or like.
(2) An instance of such a figure of
speech or a use of words exemplifying it.
1393: From the Middle English from
the Latin simile (a like thing; a comparison, likeness, parallel), neuter of similis (like, resembling, of the same
kind). The antonym is dissimile and the plural similes or similia although the latter, the
original Latin form, is now so rare its use would probably only confuse. Apart from its use as a literary device, the
word was one most familiar as the source of the “fax” machine, originally the telefacsimile and there was a “radio
facsimile” service as early as the 1920s whereby images could be transmitted
over long-distance using radio waves.
The simile is figure of speech in
which one thing is explicitly compared to another, usually using “like” or “as”;
both things must be mentioned and the comparison directly stated. For literary effect, the two things compared should
be thought so different as to not usually appear in the same sentence and the comparison
must directly be stated. Dr Johnson
thought a simile “…to be perfect, must
both illustrate and ennoble the subject" but most have long become clichéd
and far removed from nobility.
It went through
me like an armor-piercing shell.
Slept like a log.
Storm in a tea
cup.
Blind as a bat.
Dead as a dodo.
Deaf as a post.
Metaphor (pronounced met-uh-fawr)
(1) A figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to
something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a
resemblance.
(2) Something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something
else; emblem; symbol.
1525-1535: From the Middle
French métaphore & the (thirteenth
century) Old French metafore from the
Latin metaphora, from the Ancient Greek
μεταφορά (metaphorá) (a transfer,
especially of the sense of one word to a different word; literally "a
carrying over”), from μεταφέρω (metaphérō)
(I transfer; I apply; I carry over; change, alter; to use a word in a strange
sense), the construct being μετά (metá)
(with; across; after; over) + φέρω (phérō,
pherein) (to carry, bear) from the primitive Indo-European root bher- (to carry; to bear children). The plural was methaphoris. In Antiquity, for
a writer to be described in Greek as metaphorikos
meant they were "apt at metaphors”, a skill highly regarded: “It is a great thing, indeed, to make a
proper use of the poetical forms, as also of compounds and strange words. But
the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing
that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a
good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars.
(Aristotle (384-322 BC), Poetics
(circa 335 BC)).
The words metaphor, simile and analogy are often used interchangeably
and, at the margins, there is a bit of overlap, a simile being a type of
metaphor but the distinctions exist. A metaphor
is a figure of figure of speech by which a characteristic of one object is
assigned to another, different but resembling it or analogous to it; comparison
by transference of a descriptive word or phrase. It’s important to note a metaphor is technically
not an element or argument, merely a device to make a point more effective or
better understood. It’s the use of a
word or phrase to refer to something other than its literal meaning, invoking
an implicit similarity between the thing described and what is denoted by the
word or phrase. It has certain technical
uses too such as the recycling or trashcan icons in the graphical user
interfaces (GUI) on computer desktops (a metaphor in itself). The most commonly used derivatives are metaphorically
& metaphorical but in literary criticism and the weird world of deconstructionism,
there’s the dead metaphor, the extended metaphor, the metaphorical extension, the mysterious conceptual metaphor and the odd
references to metaphoricians and
their metaphorization. Within the discipline, the sub-field of categorization
is metaphorology, the body of work of
those who metaphorize.
This royal
throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of
majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden,
demi-paradise,
This fortress
built by Nature for herself
Against
infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed
of men, this little world,
This precious
stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it
in the office of a wall
Or as a moat
defensive to a house,
Against the envy
of less happier lands,--
This blessed
plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Richard II (circa 1594), Act 2 scene 1.
Analogy (pronounced uh-nal-uh-jee)
(1) A similarity between like
features of two things, on which a comparison may be based:
(2) A similarity or comparability.
(3) In biology, an analogous
relationship; a relationship of resemblance or equivalence
between two situations, people, or objects, especially when used as a basis for
explanation or extrapolation.
(4) In linguistics, the process by
which words or phrases are created or re-formed according to existing patterns
in the language.
(5) In logic a form of reasoning in
which one thing is inferred to be similar to another thing in a certain
respect, on the basis of the known similarity between the things in other
respects.
(6) In geometry, the proportion or the equality of ratios.
(7) In grammar, the correspondence of a word or phrase with the genius
of a language, as learned from the manner in which its words and phrases are
ordinarily formed; similarity of derivative or inflectional processes.
1530-1540: From the Old
French analogie, from the Latin analogia, from
the Ancient Greek ἀναλογία
(analogía), (ratio or
proportion) the construct being ἀνά (aná) (upon; according to) + λόγος (logos) (ratio; word; speech, reckoning)
from the primitive Indo-European root leg-
(to collect, to gather (with derivatives meaning "to speak; to pick out
words). It was originally a term from mathematical
given a wider sense by Plato who extended it to logic (which became essentially
“an argument from the similarity of things in some ways inferring their
similarity in others”. The meaning
"partial agreement, likeness or proportion between things" is from
1540s and by the 1580s it was common in mathematics; by circa 1600 it was in
general English use. The plural is analogies
and the derived forms include the adjective analogical and the verbs analogize
& analogized. In critical discourse
there’s the false analogy and the rare disanalogy.
An analogy is a comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to
another thing that is quite different from it, aiming to explain the idea or
thing by comparing it to something that is familiar. Further to confuse, metaphors and similes are
tools used to draw an analogy so an analogy can be more extensive and elaborate
than either a simile or a metaphor.
The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), The Day Is Done (1844)
They crowded very close about him, with their hands always on him in a
careful, caressing grip, as though all the while feeling him to make sure he
was there. It was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump
back into the water.
George Orwell (1903-1950), A
Hanging (1931)
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