Art & MusicGreek → English
Metaphor
A figure of speech describing one thing as another.
The Greek roots
μετά
metá
across, over
φέρειν
phérein
to carry
Literally: “a carrying across”
The story of the word
A metaphor 'carries meaning across' from one thing to another — in modern Greek, moving vans still read metaphorá.
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
In a sentence
‘Time is a thief’ is a metaphor.