What do you call a word that's commonly associated only with one specific thing or phrase, but also isn't specific to that one thing?
The word on mind is "uncanny" which people only ever use when talking about the similarity of things, when the word just means "strange or mysterious"?
Pic obviously related.
Cliche. When cliches become longstanding so that the word is typically only used in a narrow way it is called a fossilized word: abated in "bated breath".
acerbic wit
>>8256250
>The word on mind is "uncanny" which people only ever use when talking about the similarity of things, when the word just means "strange or mysterious"?
Uncanny means something which seems both familiar and strange; it's the disturbance caused by something which seems to be imitating the familiar.
>What do you call a word that's commonly associated only with one specific thing or phrase, but also isn't specific to that one thing?
Metonymy