catachresis

• catechresis, katachresis (both 17th century; obsolete)^[1]

Learned borrowing from Latin catachrēsis, borrowed from Ancient Greek κατάχρησις (katákhrēsis, “misuse (of a word)”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkæt.əˈkɹiː.sɪs/

• Audio (Southern England):

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catachresis (countable and uncountable, plural catachreses)

1. A misuse of a word; an application of a term to something which it does not properly denote.^[1]
   1. (often, especially) Such a misuse involving some similarity of sound between the misused word and the appropriate word.
2. (rhetoric) A misapplication or overextension of a figurative or analogical description; a wrongly applied metaphor or trope.^[1]
   • 1835, L[arret] Langley, “[The Seven Tropes.] Catachresis.”, in A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster, South Yorkshire: […] C. White, […], →OCLC, page 14:

     A Catachresis terms abused receives,
     And epithets and attributes improper gives.

• (misuse of a word, with similar sounds): malapropism (this word is sometimes used in a way hyponymic to catachresis, in which sense only absurd and laughable catachreses are malapropisms)
• ((rhetoric) bad metaphor or trope): abusio

• eggcorn
• misnomer (a word that is well-known to seem to refer to something other than its referent but is nonetheless usually correct)
• phantonym (a word that invites catachrestic use because of its sound or appearance)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κατάχρησις (katákhrēsis, “misuse (of a word)”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ka.taˈkʰreː.sɪs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ka.t̪aˈkrɛː.s̬is]

catachrēsis f (genitive catachrēsis); third declension

1. (New Latin) catachresis

• → English: catachresis
• → French: catachrèse f