Why “icasm” is a great word
ICASM — [Noun] An imitative or figurative expression; a likeness formed by deliberate comparison. From the Ancient Greek εἴκασμα (eíkasma, "likeness, image"), from εἰκάζω (eikázō, "to make like, to portray"). Unlike "metaphor," which insists on a transformative identification, or "literal," which clings to a primary, exact meaning, an icasm is the explicit pact of resemblance, the conscious artifice of setting two things side-by-side to trace their shared contours. It is the moon hung like a silver coin, the sound of a cello like bruise-colored velvet, a memory lingering like a perfume in an empty room—the humble, honest work of making the unknown knowable, not by declaring it identical, but by offering a familiar key.