Q My teacher wrote on my paper that I need to avoid “catachresis.” What does that mean? – A.G., Portland, Maine

A: One thing it means is that your teacher likes fancy words. “Catachresis” can refer either to the use of the wrong word for the context or the use of a forced and especially paradoxical figure of speech. (You can probably tell which your teacher was objecting to by checking to see whether the indicated problems relate to particular words or to entire sentences.)

As you might have guessed, “catachresis” is a word mostly used by grammarians and teachers of grammar. It can sometimes be used merely as a label of disparagement for uses the grammarian finds unacceptable, as when Henry Fowler insisted in 1926 that “mutual” in “our mutual friend” was a catachresis. (Fowler preferred “common,” but “mutual” does have an established sense which is correct in that context.)

In case you’re curious, the first recorded use of “catachresis” dates to 1553, and it has been used to describe (or criticize) misuses of words ever since. “Catachresis” comes to us by way of Latin from the Greek word “katachresis,” which means “misuse.”

Q Years ago when I was a child we used to sing a ditty that went “old man Moses kicked the bucket and old man Moses is dead.” What does “kicked the bucket” have to do with death? – B.H., New London, Conn.

A: The saying “kick the bucket” has long been used to mean “die,” usually in darkly humorous and sometimes disrespectful contexts. Several explanations have been advanced for its origin.

At one time, pigs to be slaughtered were hung by their hind legs upon a hook in a bent piece of wood; the word “bucket” might refer to this piece of wood and “kick” to the struggling movements made by the pig. Another explanation holds that the “bucket” in the phrase is the container of holy water once customarily placed at the feet of a corpse during the Catholic funeral mass so that mourners could sprinkle it upon the deceased as they passed.

This column was prepared by the editors of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.

Readers may send questions to Merriam-Webster’s Wordwatch, P.O. Box 281, 47 Federal St., Springfield, MA 01102.

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