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carrot or ginger by his schoolmates, and the one who is given to spy-
ing and sneaking gets the derogatory nickname of rat. Both these' 
meanings are metaphorical, though, of course, the children using 
them are quite unconscious of this fact. 
The slang meanings of words such as nut, onion (= head), saucers 
(= eyes), hoofs (== feet) and very many others were all formed by 
transference based on resemblance. 
Transference Based on Contiguity 
Another term for this type of transference is linguistic metonymy. 
The association is based upon subtle psychological links between 
different objects and phenomena, sometimes traced and identified 
with much difficulty. The two objects may be associated together 
because they often appear in common situations, and so the image of 
one is easily accompanied by the image of the other; or they may be 
associated on the principle of cause and effect, of common function, 
of some material and an object which is made of it, etc. 
Let us consider some cases of transference based on contiguity. 
You will notice that they are of different kinds. 
The Old English adjective glad meant "bright, shining" (it was 
applied to the sun, to gold and precious stones, to shining armour, 
etc.). The later (and more modern) meaning "joyful" developed on 
the basis of the 
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usual association (which is reflected in most languages) of light with 
joy (cf. with the R. светлое настроение; светло на душе). 
The meaning of the adjective sad in Old English was "satisfied 
with food" (cf. with the R. сыт(ый) which is a word of the same 
Indo-European root). Later this meaning developed a connotation of a 
greater intensity of quality and came to mean "oversatisfied with 
food; having eaten too much". Thus, the meaning of the adjective sad 
developed a negative evaluative connotation and now described not a 
happy state of satisfaction but, on the contrary, the physical unease 
and discomfort of a person who has had too much to eat. The next 
shift of meaning was to transform the description of physical discom-
fort into one of spiritual discontent because these two states often go 
together. It was from this prosaic source that the modern meaning of 
sad "melancholy", "sorrowful" developed, and the adjective describes 
now a purely emotional state. The two previous meanings ("satisfied 
with food" and "having eaten too much") were ousted from the se-
mantic structure of the word long ago. 
The foot of a bed is the place where the feet rest when one lies in 
the bed, but the foot of a mountain got its name by another associa-
tion: the foot of a mountain is its lowest part, so that the association 
here is founded on common position. 
By the arms of an arm-chair we mean the place where the arms lie 
when one is setting in the chair, so that the type of association here is 
the same as in the foot of a bed. The leg of a bed (table, chair, etc.), 
though, is the part which serves as a support, the original meaning 
being "the leg of a man or animal". The association that lies behind 
this development of meaning is the common function: a piece of fur-
niture is supported by its legs just as living beings are supported by 
theirs.
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The meaning of the noun hand realised in the context hand of a 
clock (watch) originates from the main meaning of this noun "part of 
human body". It also developed due to the association of the common 
function: the hand of a clock points to the figures on the face of the 
clock, and one of the functions of human hand is also that of pointing 
to things. 
Another meaning of hand realised in such contexts as factory