What is an idea-as-food metaphor?

What is an idea-as-food metaphor?

Definition
	A conventional metaphor in which an idea is represented as food in comparisons such as the following:
	taste represents the agreeability of the idea the state of preparation of the food represents the amount of thought that has gone into the idea the amount of hunger of a diner represents a person's desire for ideas

Examples
	Here are some examples in English:
	What he said left a bad taste in my mouth. I just can't swallow that claim. Let me stew over that for a while. He's a voracious reader.

Generic
	An idea-as-food metaphor is a kind of
	What is a metaphor for rational processes?

Source
	Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980

Context for this page:

Concept module: idea-as-food metaphor
In modular book: Metaphors in English, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H. Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Lexicon

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 18 September 1998

© 1999 SIL International