Poetic term of the day — May 5, 2008

CATACHRESIS (kata-KREE-sis): Misuse or abuse of words; the use of the wrong word for the context, as atone for repent, ingenuous for ingenious, or a forced trope in which a word is used too far removed from its true meaning, as "melancholy table" or Milton’s "blind mouth" in Lycidas.

at left: Constantin Cavafy

illiustation:ellinikotheatro.org/

http://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.html