an expression which was originally mooted as a metaphor, but has become so familiar it has become accepted and its metaphoric origins have been forgotten (e.g., a covalent bond involves electron sharing)
Example:
"…the reference to there being a 'genetic code' is so well established as part of everyday language, that the metaphor may readily be missed…for the physics teacher, resistance may simply be a way of labelling how much p.d. is required to produce a certain amount of current flow, rather than having potential implications of being an active opposition to that flow" (Taber, 2013, p.1379)
Read about metaphor in science
Read about examples of science metaphors
Many examples of science metaphors are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
