L’analogie médicale dans le discours économique

Of the numerous lexical items borrowed from medical discourse, some –like inflation– have become real terms, which is not the case for paralysis or fever, for example. One may wonder whether borrowed lexical units retain their metaphorical potential once they have become terms. Is the medical origin of some phrases actually perceived, which might prevent them from becoming terms ? This paper confirms the idea that in order for economic discourse to be efficient, terms themselves need to retain some figurative features.