[…] figurative uses of a word do not perplex us […] they are part and parcel of the sphere of application of the word. For it is an important item in this process of transfer that we gradually lose our sense of the figure implied, and come to employ each sign as if it had always been the simple and downright representative of its idea.
- Whitney (1875), a pag.87

[…] there are subjects of decency or delicacy, with reference to which we have to pick our expressions very carefully, if we would not offend or disgust. It is one of the most striking illustrations possible of the dominion which words have won over our thoughts, that we will tolerate in indirect, figurative, merely suggestive expression what would be repulsive in direct statement.
- Whitney (1875), a pag.113