This paper considers metaphor and metonymy in verbs whose meaning centres around the idea 'hit' ('percussion/ impact' or 'P/I' verbs). It proposes two new categories to understand metaphor and metonymy, specifically as they relate to conventionalisation and generalisation: post-metonymy and post-metaphor. Post-metonymies are originally metonymic semantic extensions which have been generalised and conventionalised so that they no longer depend on the presence of P/I in their referent: their contexts of use have 'overshot' the domains of their original appropriateness. Post-metaphors, likewise, are originally metaphorical applications of P/I expressions in which there is no longer any connection to P/I, but which continue to convey the meaning originally instantiated by the metaphor. The importance of metonymy or metaphor as the explanation of a semantic extension therefore remains unchanged when the extension becomes conventionalised, and the lines between metonymy and metaphor are not blurred solely because the original motivation of a meaning has disappeared. (Nick Riemer)