Do you Require a Clue ?

What is a 'metaphor' ? It comes from an ancient Greek term that describes using one idea to describe another.

The concept depends on the fact that it is often helpful to explain something in terms of something else that it reminds you of. "She swept into the room . . . " Don't you know that 'whooshing' movement that you associate with the flourish of a broom as it stirs up the dust ? "Swallow your pride"; "Head of the queue"; "The joke fell flat"; "I'm not a mind-reader, you know"; "You paint a very gloomy picture"; "I don't much like the sound of that".

"Sailing close to the wind" may not ring a bell with landlubbers, but even if you have only done a little sailing in a dinghy, you will be aware of the risk of a gybing boom banging you on the head if you alter direction carelessly when tacking. ("Changing tack" is a familiar metaphor too.)

We don't only find metaphor in cliches* and proverbs and phrases. There are some single words whose main use nowadays is metaphoric, while the original metaphor is quite forgotten.

'Require' is one. We usually use it to mean 'need' or 'necessitate.' "To replace the blade you will require a half-inch spanner." "Entry to the event requires a ticket". "The matter requires investigation". But the basic meaning of 'require' is to 'ask for' or to 'seek' (from the Latin verb quaero/quaest-: think of our derivatives 'quest' and 'question').

Clue is another. A clue (or clew) used, in Old English, to mean a ball, such as the ball of yarn that the legendary Greek hero Theseus unwound as he entered the Cretan labyrinth so that he would be able to find his way out again. The term came to mean anything that helps to solve a problem.

* 'Cliche' is a metaphor too, a French word referring to the block or plate from which pictures are mechanically reproduced or 'stereotyped**', lots of them, all identical.

** So is 'stereoptype', of course.

*** A few weeks after writing this I received in the post a form to fill in (to do with a certain health survey). The covering letter ends with the statement, in large black type, "IF YOU REQUIRE THIS INFORMATION IN LARGE PRINT PLEASE CALL . . . .(phone number)". Since two Latinate syllables are always regarded by officials as double the value of a single old English one, 'require' (or perhaps 'desire') takes the place of cheap, old-fashioned 'need' or 'want'. [Hint for drafters of formal letters who are paid by the syllable: 'Desiderate' has four syllables, so might make a suitable replacement for 'desire'.]

Do you Require a Clue ?