An extended metaphor that creates its own context.
Created by Paul Avion and based on Alfred Jarry's science of 'pataphysics (the science of that which extends beyond
metaphysics), a pataphor attempts to create a figure of speech that exists as far from metaphor as metaphor exists from non-figurative language.
Also, when an idea seems to take on a life of its own.
An
assumption based on an
assumption.
2 degrees of separation from reality.
"When the new teacher snubbed me, I thought it was because I failed the test.
When I learned the teacher hadn't seen me, I realized I had been thinking in pataphor, creating an assumption based on an assumption."
"That's all in your mind, fool; strictly pataphor."
"Because string theory is speculation based on ideas that are themselves speculative (i.e., theories of
general relativity and
quantum mechanics), quantum calculations are, increasingly, not describing an actual reality, but are
mathematical pataphors." See also pataphysics.