Catachresis is "misapplication of a word, especially in a mixed metaphor" according to the Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Another meaning is to use an existing word to denote something that has no name in the current language.

Compare malapropism

Malapropism

A malapropism is an act of misusing or the habitual misuse of similar sounding words, especially with humorous results. An example is Yogi Berra's statement: "Texas has a lot of electrical votes," rather than "electoral votes".-Etymology:...

 and solecism

Solecism

In traditional prescriptive grammar, a solecism is something perceived as a grammatical mistake or absurdity, or even a simply non-standard usage. The word was originally used by the Greeks for what they perceived as mistakes in their language...

, which are unintentional violations of
the norms, while catachresis may be either deliberate or unintentional.

Forms and examples

Common forms of catachresis are:

• Using a word in a sense radically different from its normal sense.

"'Tis deepest winter in Lord Timon's purse" — Shakespeare, Timon of Athens

Timon of Athens

The Life of Timon of Athens is a play by William Shakespeare about the fortunes of an Athenian named Timon , generally regarded as one of his most obscure and difficult works...

• Using a word to denote something for which, without the catachresis, there is no actual name
  Name
  A name is a word or term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person, and may or may not include a middle name...
  
  .

"a table's leg"

• Using a word out of context.

"Can't you hear that? Are you blind?"

• Using paradox
  Paradox
  Similar to Circular reasoning, A paradox is a seemingly true statement or group of statements that lead to a contradiction or a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition...
  
  es or contradiction
  Contradiction
  In classical logic, a contradiction consists of a logical incompatibility between two or more propositions. It occurs when the propositions, taken together, yield two conclusions which form the logical, usually opposite inversions of each other...
  
  s.

"Darkness visible" – John Milton

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

, Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...

• Creating an illogical mixed metaphor.

"To take arms against a sea of troubles..." – Shakespeare, Hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

• Misuse of a word out of a misunderstanding of its meaning.

"The runner literally flew down the track."

Catachresis is often used to convey extreme emotion or alienation. It is prominent in baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 literature and, more recently, in dada

Dada

Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...

ist and surrealist

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 literature.

Example from Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...

's Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry

Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry

"Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry" is a short essay by Alexander Pope published in 1727. The aim of the essay is to ridicule contemporary poets.- Content :...

:

Masters of this [Catachresis] will say,

Mow the beard,

Shave the grass,

Pin the plank,

Nail my sleeve.

From whence results the same kind of pleasure to the mind, as doth to the eye when we behold Harlequin trimming himself with a hatchet, hewing down a tree with a razor, making his tea in a cauldron, and brewing his ale in a teapot, to the incredible satisfaction of the British spectator.

Derrida, Spivak

In Jacques Derrida

Jacques Derrida

Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...

's ideas of deconstruction

Deconstruction

Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...

, catachresis refers to the original incompleteness that is a part of all systems of meaning. Postcolonial theorist Gayatri Spivak applies this word to 'master words' that claim to represent a group—e.g., women or the proletariat

Proletariat

The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...

—when there are no 'true' examples of 'woman' or 'proletarian'. In a similar way, words that are imposed upon a people and are deemed improper thus denote a catachresis, a word with an arbitrary connection to its meaning.