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Huh, so the physical canary in the coal mine is also a metaphorical “canary in the coal mine” with respect to the company’s level of prudence. Is there a word for something which is analogy for itself?

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A recursive analogy?

Though a quick verbatim google search reveals no precedent in linguistics... so I may have just invented that one.

or they don't use the word recursive to describe two meanings, rather than recursion.

Unless I misread it, it seems to be the same meaning in both cases?

So, a missing canarie can mean a lack of good air, or lack of employer caring about non-human (and to some extent human) health.

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