CATACHRESIS

catachresis

(noun) strained or paradoxical use of words either in error (as ‘blatant’ to mean ‘flagrant’) or deliberately (as in a mixed metaphor: ‘blind mouths’)

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

catachresis (plural catachreses)

A misuse of a word; an application of a term to something which it does not properly denote.

(often, especially) Such a misuse involving some similarity of sound between the misused word and the appropriate word.

(rhetoric) A misapplication or overextension of figurative or analogical description; a wrongly-applied metaphor or trope.

Synonyms

• (misuse of a word, regardless of similar sounds): misnomer

• (misuse of a word, with similar sounds): malapropism

• ((rhetoric) bad metaphor or trope): abusio

Source: Wiktionary

Cat`a*chre"sis, n. Etym: [L. fr. Gr. (Rhel.)

Definition: A figure by which one word is wrongly put for another, or by which a word is wrested from its true signification; as, "To take arms against a sea of troubles. " Shak. "Her voice was but the shadow of a sound." Young.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition