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Metastasize

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:32 am
by William Hupy
For 19 years I have held a cheesecake contest on the last day of the year. Inevitably, bits of cake fall to the floor and with the crowd of people sampling the cakes, the sticky, gooey contents spread across the floor unless I deligently clean up. Is it wrong for me to borrow this word from the medical realm to describe how dropped food will metastasize over the floor by the constant shuffling of human shoes?

Re: Metastasize

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2023 9:50 pm
by Slava
To answer the question, nearly 5 years later, I'd say yes. Metastasis seems more a self-induced change in form or location. I gather that in ancient rhetoric one could have a metastasis or transition, but it appears the word is pretty much limited to medical uses these days. Or in physics. Cheesecake crumbs, not so much. :)