How Writers Extend Standard Metaphors; and how Val McDermid does
How artists extend or elaborate conventional metaphors was brought home to me forcefully and repeatedly while reading a detective novel Broken Ground[ii] by Val McDermid.
Penguin Awareness Day, penguin suits, Penguin books & Welsh
I bet you’ll never guess from which language English borrowed penguin. Could it be from those adventurous mariners the Dutch, as their word is pinguïn? Or perhaps from a Polynesian language? Nope, neither of those. It’s most probably from… ... ... ... ... Meanwhile, English being so footloose – nay, cavalier – with parts of speech, it was inevitable that Penguin books should hatch a verb.
Bee imagery; not the bee-all and end-all; busy bees; beeline
Apart from those phrases below mentioned by Mencken, bee’s knees belonged to a broad menagerie of fanciful animal phrases, including the kipper’s knickers and the cuckoo’s chin. Made endearing by its rhyme, it has survived along with the cat’s whiskers/pyjamas.