ABSTRACT
The phrase body politic belongs to a fi eld of clichéd metaphors in English that refer to political entities and issues in terms of bodily organs and functions, such as head of state, head of government, long arm of the law, organ (of a party), sclerosis or tumour (of the body politic), heart of Britain/Europe.1 It is used by British and American media and politicians, e.g. in formulations such as “Europe could cease to be the cyanide in the British body politic”; “voices in the body politic”; “disembowelling the body politic”, “campaign culture metastasize[d] throughout the entire body politic”.2 The Conservative politician and mayor of London, Boris Johnson, even described himself tongue-in-cheek as “a mere toenail in the body politic”.3
