From intriguing to misleading: The ambivalent role of metaphor in modern astrophysical and cosmological terminology

While metaphor has long been shown to pervade scientific discourse and terminology, little is known about how it affects the human comprehension of abstract concepts underpins further development related ideas. In this article we focus on seven established terms in astrophysics cosmology, which have also become staples popular science, namely “big bang”, “wormhole”, “black hole”, “spaghettification”, “gravitational hair”, “fuzzball”, “string” (in context string theory). We carry out etymological contextual analysis find specifics their use specialized literature, with a particular emphasis personification physical entities. Also, apply conceptual theory compare source domain target domains, identifying potentially misleading discrepancies between two. reveal that most these metaphorical nominalizations invoke inaccurate largely distorted images referenced entities, are extended amplified new details popularizations. suggest more research needed into different disciplines better understand implications for both expert lay knowledge subject.