Simile

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File:Madonna-like-a-virgin-sire-6.jpg
The Madonna album Like a Virgin, in whose title track the narrative persona uses a simile, professing to be experiencing an erotic relationship "like a virgin".

A simile (/ˈsɪmɪli/) is a type of figure of speech that directly compares two unrelated things, using wording to explicitly make the comparison (often, with a grammatical structure of the type "x is like y").[1][2] It is usually understood specifically to entail figurative comparison:[3] thus "a wolf is like a dog" is merely a literal comparison, whereas the figurative "a man is like a wolf" is a simile.[4]Template:R/superscript In the words of Michael Israel, Jennifer Riddle Harding, and Vera Tobin, "basically, a simile is just a way of describing a target by asserting its similarity to some unexpected entity".[3]Template:R/superscript

In English, similes are often made explicit by the word "like", as in "Odysseus is like a weasel", but the comparison in a simile can be made explicit in quite different ways, as in "the retirement of Yves Saint Laurent is the fashion equivalent of the breakup of the Beatles". Sometimes, extra information is included to explain precisely how the comparison is intended to work, as in "my kitchen is approximately the size of a postage stamp".[3]

Definition

Similes are often compared (or contrasted) with metaphors. Similes compare two things explicitly, in English often using the words "like" or "as", whereas metaphors often create an implicit comparison (i.e., saying something "is" something else). Thus Odysseus is a weasel is a metaphor, while Odysseus is like a weasel is a simile.[3]Template:R/superscript

However, there are two schools of thought regarding the relationship between similes and metaphors. The first defines them as opposites, such that a statement cannot be both a simile and a metaphor — if it uses a comparison word such as "like" then it is a simile; if not, it is a metaphor.[1][5][2][6] The second school considers metaphor to be the broader category, in which similes are a subcategory — according to which every simile is also a metaphor (but not vice-versa).[7][8][9][10] These two schools reflect differing definitions and usages of the word "metaphor" and regardless of whether it encompasses similes, both agree that similes always involve a direct comparison word such as "like" or "as".

The word simile derives from the Latin word similis ("similar, like"), while metaphor derives from the Greek word metapherein ("to transfer").[5] As in the case of metaphors, the thing that is being compared is called the tenor, and the thing it is being compared to is called the vehicle.[11] Author and lexicographer Frank J. Wilstach compiled a dictionary of similes in 1916, with a second edition in 1924.

Uses

In literature

Sometimes similes and metaphors function in much the same way, as in "O My Luve's like a red, red rose" in the Robert Burns poem "A Red, Red Rose":[1][12] this could be turned into the metaphor "my love is a red rose" without confusing the reader. However, because similes are explicit, it is possible for them to be more elaborate than metaphors while remaining comprehensible,[3] as in the following examples:

As when a prowling Wolf, ::Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey, ::Watching where Shepherds pen their Flocks at eve ::In hurdl'd Cotes amid the field secure, ::Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the Fold: ::. . . . . . . ::So clomb this first grand Thief into God's Fold[14]

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.[15]
Stopping her from going was like trying to catch a bullet with a pair of tweasers, impossible.[15]
Learning to drive was like a deer learning how to walk for the first time. Stumbling until you get it right.[15]

Authors sometimes use similes to establish a comparison explicitly, using metaphors thereafter once the comparison has been established[16] (the same process can happen in everyday conversations, either with the metaphor or the simile coming first).[17]Template:R/superscript

In comedy

Similes are used extensively in British comedy, notably in the slapstick era of the 1960s and 1970s. In comedy, the simile is often used in negative style: "he was as daft as a brush." They are also used in a comedic context where a sensitive subject is broached, and the comedian will test the audience with a response to a subtle implicit simile before going deeper.[18] The sitcom Blackadder featured the use of extended similes, normally said by the title character. For example:

Baldrick: I have a plan, sir.
Blackadder: Really, Baldrick? A cunning and subtle one?
Baldrick: Yes, sir.
Blackadder: As cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University?[19]

In languages other than English

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Given that similes emphasize affinities between different objects, they occur in many cultures and languages.

Arabic

Sayf al-Din al-Amidi discussed Arabic similes in 1805: "On Substantiation Through Transitive Relations"[dead link].

Vietnamese

Thuy Nga Nguyen and Ghil'ad Zuckermann (2012) classify Vietnamese similes into two types: Meaning Similes and Rhyming Similes.

The following is an example: Template:Interlinear

Whereas the above Vietnamese example is of a rhyming simile, the English simile "(as) poor as a church mouse" is only a semantic simile.[20]

See also

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For a list of words relating to similes, see the English similes category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (2nd ed.). Bedford/St. Martins. 2003. pp. 447–448. ISBN 978-0312259105.
  2. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Simile". Literary Terms. 22 June 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e Michael Israel, Jennifer Riddle Harding, and Vera Tobin, "On Simile", in Language, Culture, and Mind, edited by Michel Achard and Suzanne Kemmer (CSLI Publications, 2004), pp. 123–35.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Cameron, Lynne (2003). Metaphor in educational discourse. Advances in applied linguistics. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-4939-9.
  5. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Metaphor Definition & Meaning: Simile vs. Metaphor". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."LitCharts".
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.McArthur, Tom, ed. (1992). The Oxford companion to the English language. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. p. 653. ISBN 978-0-19-214183-5.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Simile vs. Metaphor: What's the Difference?". Simile vs. Metaphor: What’s the Difference? | Grammarly. 2022-09-21. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."What's the Difference Between Metaphor, Simile, and Analogy?". MasterClass. Aug 24, 2021. Retrieved Jul 5, 2024.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."What is a Metaphor — Definition and Examples". StudioBinder. YouTube. Apr 2, 2023. 4:00 mark in the video. Retrieved Jul 5, 2024.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."What Is A Simile?". English Like A Native. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Burns, Robert. "A Red Red Rose". Glen Collection of Printed Music, Vol. 5. National Library of Scotland. p. 415. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Murfin, Ross; Ray, Supryia M. (2003). The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (2nd ed.). Bedford/St. Martins. pp. 135. ISBN 978-0312259105.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Milton, John (1852). Henry John Todd (ed.). The Poetical Works of John Milton: With Notes of Various Authors; and with Some Account of the Life and Writings of Milton, Derived Principally from Original Documents in Her Majesty's State-paper Office. Rivingtons, Longman and Company. p. 62.
  15. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.William Hall, ed. (1850). Encyclopædia of English Grammar: Designed for the Use of Schools, Academies, and Private Learners. Scott and Bascom. p. 352.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Low, Graham (2010). "Wot no similes? The curious absence of simile in university lectures". In Deignan, Alice; Low, Graham; Cameron, Lynne; Todd, Zazie (eds.). Researching and Applying Metaphor in the Real World. Human Cognitive Processing, 26. Amsterdam: Benjamins. p. 295. doi:10.1075/hcp.26.17low. ISBN 9789027223807.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Marhula, Joanna (2018-01-01). ""It's like herding butterflies": Simile-type comparisons and the interplay between similes and metaphors in radio discourse". Metaphor and the Social World. 8 (1): 64–80. doi:10.1075/msw.17002.mar. ISSN 2210-4070.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."What Is A Simile?". Funny Similes!. Retrieved 2016-04-06.[permanent dead link]
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Edmund_Blackadder (2016-05-02). "Blackadder Series 4 Episode 6 Goodbyeee Full Script". Blackadder Quotes. Archived from the original on 8 January 2024. Retrieved 2024-01-21.
  20. ^ See p. 98 in Thuy Nga Nguyen and Ghil'ad Zuckermann (2012), "Stupid as a Coin: Meaning and Rhyming Similes in Vietnamese", International Journal of Language Studies 6 (4), pp. 97-118.

Further reading

  • Michael Israel, Jennifer Riddle Harding, and Vera Tobin, "On Simile", in Language, Culture, and Mind, edited by Michel Achard and Suzanne Kemmer (CSLI Publications, 2004), pp. 123–35.
  • Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Beck, Deborah (2023). The stories of similes in Greek and Roman epic. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108481793.

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