What a typhoon looks like from space (Typhoon Trami, 2018).
Credit: ISS, ESA/NASA-A.Gerst
I’m failing to see how that is a “proverbial” eye of the storm. It’s literally the eye of the storm.
this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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I'm not a native speaker I thought proverbial meant frequently used in a proverb/idiom
The third definition of "proverbial" is: "Widely referred to, as if the subject of a proverb; famous."
Your usage was totally apt 👍
Thanks!
Proverbial can also indicate a well-known or familiar way of saying something, so your are correct in saying this is the proverbial eye of the storm, since it's a metaphor we commonly use to describe the phenomenon
Let’s see if I can explain. “The Eye of the Storm” is a proverb when you’re talking about a lull in a non-storm disaster. When you’re talking about a literal typhoon, that phrase is just the actual name of the weather pattern.
So the “eye of the storm” we’re talking about is the concept and origin of the phrase that is widely used as a proverb for non-weather related problems. Does that make any sense?
For example, if you had a huge battlefield with two armies shooting at each other and all of a sudden there were a momentary pause of action for no reason, someone might say that this is just the eye of the storm as a way to imply that it's a temporary pause and the violence will return soon. In that case, you're speaking idiomatically by comparing the battle to a storm along with the feature of a storm, the eye.
It's also confusing in another layer because the center of a storm being referred to as an eye is itself figurative. It's describing the structure of a storm as resembling that of an eye. So the center of a storm is not a literal eye, but the eye of a storm is an actual structure of a storm.
The issue here is that the structure being referred to as an "eye" is idiomatic for a different reason than someone would invoke the phrase "eye of the storm" idiomatically. It's two completely different idioms shorting out against each other. And in the case of this image, that is literally the eye of the storm.
To put it another way, all you have to do is move the quotes to fix the issue.
The proverbial “eye" of the storm seen from space
Damn that was quite a journey but it makes sense!
it means, "if you wanted to see what the Eye of the Storm from the old proverbs ACTUALLY looks like, here you go".. it's the Eye of Storms from the proverbs.. proverbial.. originally a reference to just the stuff from the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament..
What a sight! I don't think I could never not be amazed by how things like this look from space.