Note

Note: [ Metaphor comes from the Greek word meaning "I carry with"; and is a rhetorical figure used to "carry" the meaning of a word into another. Allegory comes from the Greek (to speak something different), as it expresses a concept using a different word. Contrary to metaphor, however, the shift of the meaning is often deep and hidden.

Incompatibility is to be regarded as a lexical relation holding between lexemes in the same semantic field or a related field rather than between lexemes belonging to totally unrelated fields.

Apparent resemblance in appearance and sight but not in essence-resemblance of that sort which may cause confusion and perplexity in arriving at a distinct thought and perception. Resemblance in sensory perception, making or containing an indirect reference to something [allusive]. [contrast the clarity of one with the ambiguity of the other]. Tashbih is gives a vague picturesque idea of the abstract thought and perception infolded or secreted within a thing.

A Metaphor (from the Greek metapherein, to carry over or transfer), is a word used to imply a resemblance but instead of likening one object to another as in the simile we directly substitute the action or operation of one for another.

Allegory

An Allegory may be regarded as a metaphor continued; since it is the representation of some one thing by another that resembles it, and which is made to stand for it. We may take from the Scriptures a very fine example of an allegory, in the 80th psalm; where the people of Israel are represented under the image of a vine: and the figure is carried throughout with great exactness and beauty. "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it; and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it: and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs into the sea, and her branches into the river. Why hast thou broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of Hosts, look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine!" . . .

The only material difference between them, besides the one being short and the other being prolonged, is, that a metaphor always explains itself by the words that are connected with it in their proper and natural meaning: as, when I say, "Achilles was a lion"; "An able minister is the pillar of the state"; the "lion" and the "pillar" are sufficiently interpreted by the mention of "Achilles" and the "minister," which I join to them; but an allegory is or may be, allowed to stand less connected with the literal meaning, the interpretation not being so directly pointed out, but left to our own reflection.

Allegory was a favourite method of delivering instruction in ancient times; for what we call fables or parables, are no other than allegories.

By words and actions attributed to beasts or inanimate objects, the dispositions of men were figured; and what we call the moral, is the unfigured sense or meaning of the allegory.

Similes

A Comparison or Simile, is, when the resemblance between two objects is expressed in form, and generally pursued more fully than the nature of a metaphor admits; as when it is said, "The actions of princes are like those great rivers, the course of which every one beholds, but their springs have been seen by few." . . .

The advantage of this figure arises from the illustration which the simile employed gives to the principal object; from the clearer view which it presents; or the more strong impression which it stamps upon the mind. Observe the effect of it in the following instance. The author is explaining the distinction between the powers of sense and imagination in the human mind. "As wax," says he, "would not be adequate to the purpose of signature, if it had not the power to retain as well as to receive the impression, the same holds of the soul with respect to sense and imagination. Sense is its receptive power; imagination, its retentive. Had it sense without imagination, it would not be as wax, but as water, where, though all impressions are instantly made, yet as soon as they are made, they are instantly lost."

In comparisons of this nature, the understanding is concerned much more than the fancy: and therefore the rules to be observed, with respect to them, are, that they be clear, and that they be useful; that they tend to render our conception of the principal object more distinct; and that they do not lead our view aside, and bewilder it with any false light. We should always remember that similes are not arguments. However apt they may be, they do no more than explain the writer's sentiments; they do not prove them to be founded on truth.

Comparisons ought not to be founded on likenesses which are too faint and remote. For these, in place of assisting, strain the mind to comprehend them, and throw no light upon the subject. It is also to be observed, that a comparison which, in the principal circumstances, carries a sufficiently near resemblance, may become unnatural and obscure, if pushed too far. Nothing is more opposite to the design of this figure, than to hunt after a great number of coincidences in minute points, merely to show how far the writer's ingenuity can stretch the resemblance.

to liken, compare a thing with anyone, assimilate, render a thing dubious to any one, resemble, seemed as if it had been so, that which is similar, co similar,

He rendered it confused to him [by making it to appear like some other thing]

It (a thing, S, MA, or an affair, MA) was, or became, ambiguous, dubious, or obscure,