Violent Metaphors - fordsfords/fordsfords.github.io GitHub Wiki

The English language has very many commonly used metaphors. As I've gotten older, I've been trying to distance myself from sports-based and violence-based metaphors ... I'm not sure why. It's not as if doing so will make society any less violent. Maybe it's a symbolic act, but the absence of something is not a public statement -- nobody's going to notice my lack of violent metaphors and say, "gee, there's a peace-loving guy."

Anyway, I'm surprised at just how pervasive these metaphors are. (This list will start out small because I don't have the time or patience to try to think of a bunch.)

• Take a stab at something. I used it because I couldn't quickly think of a good alternative.
• Take a bullet for somebody.
• Fall on my sword for something.