Fractal: A form of pun in which a word, as part of another word, lends special significance when the larger word is used.
"He acts as if he had ants in his pants.
I'm confusing this word with another. Isn't there an art-related word that is something like fractal? Must go check...
Yes. I thought it rang a bell. Here's the definition from geometry, and, by extension, you can imagine the kind of art created:
"A fractal is a set which is self-similar; fractals are repetitive in shape, but not in size. In other words, no matter how much you magnify a fractal, it will always look the same (or at least similar)." (Quick definition on onelook.com)
Dear WW: not art, but mathematics, though when printed in
color, they produce striking visual effects. There used to
be a lot of such pictures seven or eight years ago. Maybe some are still available. Here's a URL:
http://kosmoi.com/Science/Mathematics/Fractals/
In reply to:
Dear WW: not art, but mathematics
wwh, did you read all of my post above?
I read your word 'fractal' and it rang a bell about a type of art I had seen about a year ago. So, I looked up the word fractal on onelook and there I read the definition applied to geometry. That confirmed my first impression about the art term. There is an art term website on which I first saw fractals. That type of art was derived from the geometry (or to use your term 'mathematics'). I'll see whether I can find the site I had visited a long time ago and pull up the works of art...