Because metaphor is always retreating into language, all language is tainted and influenced by metaphor (2007). Language is a set of mutually suspending claims to meaning, as each word relies upon its connection to others. It is a fabric woven through endless “play” (1967), a polyseme that indicates (among other things) the constant creative (semi-competitive) repurposing of language and meaning, and also the inherent malleability or plasticity of language. In other words, your ability to understand my metaphoric use of “disappear” relies upon a whole variety of linguistic metaphoric relationships – we can never trace language back to its “real” root. If all language is metaphoric, our ability to use and understand language is not simply our comprehension of the meaning of each word and their syntax; it is our involvement or participation in living language, our constant use of and innovation within language. This demands that we constantly reinvent metaphor. We are constantly delving into the trove of language to invent new meanings and repurpose old words like “delve” and “trove” or “invest.”

Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, loc. 78