Kinds of words

Words are of two basic kinds: simple (composed of non-significant elements, like "earth") and double or compound (composed of a significant and non-significant element, or two significant elements). Every word available to the poet is one of eight types: current (in general use among the people), strange (in use in another region), metaphorical, ornamental, newly coined, lengthened, contracted, or altered.

A current word is in common use; a strange word is from another dialect or region. The same word may be simultaneously strange and current — strange in one context, current in another. Metaphor is the application of an alien name by transference: from genus to species ("my ship stands still" — a ship lying at anchor is an instance of standing still); from species to genus ("he has done ten thousand noble deeds" — ten thousand is a large species of number used for the genus of many); from species to species (two species share an attribute, and the name of each is used for the other); or by analogy (A relates to B as C relates to D, so A may be used where D is expected, or D where A is expected).

The proportional metaphor is the most developed: as old age is to life, so evening is to day — so one may call old age the evening of life or evening the old age of day. Aristotle gives other examples: as Dionysus is to wine-bowl, so Ares is to shield — "the shield of Ares" and "the wine-bowl of Dionysus" as metaphors. When one term of the proportion lacks an established word, the poet can supply an invented one. A newly coined word is one the poet has invented without any local use; a lengthened word has a vowel extended or a syllable added; a contracted word has a syllable removed; an altered word has part of its normal form replaced.