Baseball provides many metaphors, but not many have made it to PubMed. A ballpark is a baseball ground. Figuratively, it is a noun meaning a particular area or range, or […]
Metaphor watch
Neville Goodman’s metaphor watch: I want a negative effect on impact
Impact is not an old word, unlike its close relative effect. The OED credits Chaucer with the first use of effect, at the end of the 14th century. Impact is […]
Neville Goodman’s metaphor watch: Just in time
Last ditch, last minute, eleventh hour: all expressions allowing a relieved sigh. There are no single, non-metaphorical words to replace them. Ultimate, late and final appear in lists of synonyms, […]
Neville Goodman’s Metaphor Watch: Elephants, skeletons, and spectres
There are a lot of elephants in a lot of rooms these days. The popularity of an elephant in the room in general English has increased ten-fold since the early […]
Neville Goodman’s Metaphor Watch: It’s a pain
It is not just medical authors who use metaphors. It is not just in medical writing that we find them. We—doctors and patients—use them every day. Can you describe the […]
Neville Goodman’s Metaphor Watch: Dream a dream of ivory castles in the air
We’ve had magic bullets (q.v.) and holy grails (q.v.). Last autumn, another unobtainable appeared on The BMJ’s news pages: “Is Hunt’s plan to expand medical student numbers more than a […]
Neville Goodman’s Metaphor Watch: Explosion? Usually barely a puff
There are about 10000 explosions in PubMed®. There are dust explosions, gas explosions, explosion injuries. In the last year, there have been 11 reports of electronic cigarette explosions. As I […]
Neville Goodman’s Metaphor Watch: leave cocktails to the bar staff
Cocktail isn’t a common word in PubMed®, but its prevalence increased eight-fold between 1975 and 2015. Cirrhosis is six times more common but increased only 1.3-fold, which is probably not […]
Neville Goodman’s Metaphor Watch: Not a raft unless it’s flat and keeps you afloat
Raft has three primary meanings (COD): a flat buoyant structure or small boat; a floating mass of fallen trees, ice, etc.; foundation concrete for a building. From the second meaning […]
Neville Goodman’s Metaphor Watch: From cast iron to concrete
In the last blog, I looked at cast iron as a metaphor for strong. You could say that concrete was analogous as a metaphor for real: we want concrete evidence, […]