[6]
Hence abuse or
catachresis of words becomes necessary, while metaphor, also, which is the supreme ornament of oratory,
applies words to things with which they have
strictly no connexion. Consequently propriety turns
not on the actual term, but on the meaning of the
term, and must be tested by the touchstone of the
understanding, not of the ear.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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