"aphorism" = ?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Well, I suspect anybody who's familiar with "aphorism" is even more familiar with "metaphor."  Of course in today's media Inglish, "metaphor" is frequently displaced by "allegory."

  So the writer, a cultural anthropologist, may have some entirely different meaning for "metaphor"; something like "synonym" ?  Who knows ?

  Or else anthropologists are using "aphorism" like crazy with some specialized, semi-arbitrary less-than-obvious-to-me meaning, something kinda like "metaphor" or "symbol" or "example" all sort of mixed together. Ineffably.

  JL

  "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
Subject: Re: "aphorism" = ?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Let's see, now. What word can I pull out of my ass to make this
>bullshit seem academic? Oh, WTF, I'll just toss in "aphorism."

Well put.

Perhaps the writer was groping in the dark for "metaphor" (still maybe not
quite right but ...)?

-- Doug Wilson


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