{"id":25030,"date":"2012-10-14T00:09:16","date_gmt":"2012-10-14T07:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=25030"},"modified":"2012-10-14T00:09:16","modified_gmt":"2012-10-14T07:09:16","slug":"kat-uh-kree-sis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/25030","title":{"rendered":"kat-uh-kree-sis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tDo you ever have one of those mornings when dawn shatters<\/strong> at the sound of the alarm clock?<\/p>\n

You literally fly<\/strong> out of bed, realizing that you only have a shred of time<\/strong> before an early phone appointment.<\/p>\n

Leaving the blankets bunched at the foot of the bed<\/strong>, you lunge for the loo and end up tripping on a table leg<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Ouch!<\/p>\n

Who put that nightstand there anyway?!<\/p>\n

(We all know the answer to that one.)<\/p>\n

So, there you are, holding your pummeled pinky toe and<\/p>\n

shouting daggers<\/strong>,<\/p>\n

when a lovely little lilac of a face<\/strong> peers through the doorway and coos,<\/p>\n

“Good morning, Mommy! I love you!”<\/p>\n

Ahhh \u2026<\/p>\n

The world melts<\/strong> at your feet (one of them still\u00a0in your hand).<\/p>\n

Your heart drizzles dreamily<\/strong> back into its proper place,<\/p>\n

And, just like that,<\/p>\n

the day sheds its dour demeanor <\/strong><\/p>\n

and begins to dance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Can you guess what all of the bold phrases in this entry have in common?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They are all examples of catachresis [kat-uh-kree-sis].<\/p>\n

Never heard of it?<\/p>\n

Neither had I until yesterday, and I was compelled to have a little fun with it.<\/p>\n

This obscure noun has a rather murky definition<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Misuse or strained use of words, as in a mixed metaphor, occurring either in error\u00a0or for rhetorical effect.”<\/p>\n

Huh?<\/p>\n

Even the experts<\/a> agree:<\/p>\n

“The results in each case are so unique that it is hard to state a general figure of speech that embodies all of the possible results. It is far easier to give examples.”<\/p>\n

So, that’s what I did!<\/p>\n

I dare you to conjure up\u00a0some catachreses of your own.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you ever have one of those mornings when dawn shatters at the sound of the alarm clock? You literally fly out of bed, realizing that you only have a shred of time before an early phone appointment. Leaving the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[148,370],"class_list":["post-25030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gleaming_word","tag-catachresis","tag-gleaming-word-a-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}