William Shakespeare used the metaphor “all the world’s a stage”.
We understand that a metaphor is a figure of speech; it’s use, an attempt to accentuate particular qualities that the metaphor shares with it’s subject. It is not an attempt to imply sameness between metaphor and subject.
The term “theater” has been given to the venue of large-scale armed conflict; thus the term “theater of war”.
But metaphors can get out of hand… (more…)