Catachresis is a noun that means the use of the wrong word for the context or situation.
I first encountered this word in high school when I had a teacher tell me that my labeling of a class notebook as my 'daily journal' was a catachresis. I think she meant that since the word 'journal' is derived from a word meaning 'day' that adding daily to that was incorrect...
but what a fight to pick, right?
I've only come across this word in the wild once or twice beyond that incident. The more memorable of the two was at a halloween house party (where no one was really expected to be firing on all cylinders) and someone made a joke about the inhabitants of a graveyard and a stranger on the couch whirled around, finger pointed in accusation, and just shouted "CATACHRESIS". I did a spit-take and struggled to explain that inhabitants is usually used to describe beings who live in a place and that using it to describe those buried in a graveyard was certainly the wrong word for the situation. No one seemed particularly pleased to learn it at the time.
You can probably see, though, that sometimes a catachresis can be used to humorous effect (intentionally or not). I know I'm guilty of it from time to time, are you?
Share a memorable catachresis from your own experience!
Can't wait to hear it,
-C
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