Words and Phrases in American Politics: 'Tidal Wave'

Abstract

M ETAPHOR as a phenomenon of primary importance in semantics has been given a great deal of attention, but perhaps not quite enough, at least not where the history of specific metaphors is concerned. Whenever the transfer of a word to some other sphere of meaning is based on obvious similarities between the two things or ideas to be compared, many, or perhaps most, philologists seem to feel that no further investigation is needed. The fox being a cunning animal, it seems quite natural that a sly fellow should be called a fox, and there one is inclined to let the matter rest. Special explanations are deemed necessary only in those cases in which there is no apparent similarity between the original and the transferred meaning of a word. If a linguist assumes that the word shrew-a railing or scolding woman-is the same as the word shrew in shrewmouse, then he is challenged to find out from what sources the name of that diminutive and seemingly innocuous animal derived its ability to develop a metaphorical sense so far apart from its original meaning. He will find the problem solved as soon as he discovers that in times not so far past popular zoology ranged the shrewmouse among the poisonous animals, so poisonous, in fact, that its mere touch could make the limb of an animal wither (Gilbert White, The Natural History of Selborne, letter of Jan. 8, 1776). The objection to this practice is that it tends to obscure the fact that even metaphors which at a first glance seem to be based on quite obvious comparisons sometimes have an interesting history that will be lost if we accept the view that what is obvious needs no further investigation. The political use of tidal wave bears out this statement. In this case the material collected for the Dictionary of Political Words and Phrases shows that the apparently evident character of this metaphor has caused significant and easily accessible points to go unobserved. If we assume the NED to be correct, the word was introduced in 1830 by Sir Charles Lyell (Principles of Geology, I, 293); however, in the sense that it was used by him and has been used by professional geologists up to the present day, a tidal wave means something different from what it means to the nonprofessional speaker. When the layman applies tidal wave not to politics but to the natural phenomenon, he thinks of an