bisociation

Noun

bisociation (countable and uncountable, plural bisociations)

1. A blending of elements drawn from two previously unrelated patterns of thought into a new pattern.
   • Arthur Koestler's concept of bisociation was introduced in the last chapter to explain how associating two absurd or ridiculous ideas gives rise to humour. Koestler goes on to describe how bisociation may be the key to creativity.1995, Mike Baxter, Product Design, page 68
   • In Memoirs of a Woman Doctor, images of confinement merge with family images. One of the most memorable of these bisociations is that involving the mother's "imprisonment" of the first-person narrator's hair in braids.1995, Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Men, Women, and God(s): Nawal El Saadawi and Arab Feminist Poetics, page 167