Thomas Kuhn applied the concept of the paradigm to describe the progress of scientific thought over time. The idea generated interest and discussion across a number of fields in addition to the history of science, eclipsing to some extent Kuhn’s original focus.
Thomas Kuhn's book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was directed to scientific thought over time, but he was aware of it potentially being applied, potentially improperly, to other areas. As a result, he narrowed down his definitions and made his assumptions more explicit.
This sort of misapplication can be seen in Social Darwinism, the uncertainty principle, relativity, and memes.
It also happened with Claude Shannon's information theory which resulted in his publication of The Bandwagon (IEEE, 1956).