The metaphorical use of paralysis even predates its modern precise medical usage, having meant more broadly enfeebled before relatively recently taking on its specific motor function related meaning--so that would be the medical field assigning a new clear definition to a term with a 2300+ year metaphorical history.
Anyway, please sign my petition denouncing libraries everywhere for putting all these joke books in the humour section. It is a real hassle for melancholics trying to balance out their bile. Then we're getting onto this Jesus fella for all this fancy double-talk about eye debris, I've had specks in my eye before and cornea scratches are a legitimate problem.
This argument that we may only use words literally feels very Drax-like: "Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast, I would catch it."