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Word of the day

  • Nov. 23rd, 2006 at 2:29 PM
side-beard-flip
From [info]frogpyjamas, is "Zeugma". The bolded word in "He took my advice and my wallet" is a zeugma - a single word which is applied to two or more nouns using different meanings.

Comments

[info]frogpyjamas wrote:
Nov. 23rd, 2006 11:01 pm (UTC)
It took me several minutes to figure out when I taught you that word. I joined okcupid to take tests with your wife. It told me my boyfriend is 0% lover or friend and 29% enemy.
[info]patrissimo wrote:
Nov. 23rd, 2006 11:04 pm (UTC)
that's not good. answer more questions!
[info]frogpyjamas wrote:
Nov. 24th, 2006 06:26 am (UTC)
I did, he's up to 80%. I actually deleted all my old answers and started over, answering them all the same. I must have misclicked somewhere late in the night.
[info]choiceful wrote:
Nov. 24th, 2006 08:48 pm (UTC)
You must tell us his profile so we can spy ;)
[info]damascene wrote:
Nov. 24th, 2006 04:17 am (UTC)
Just so, as in all of the good lines in "Have Some Madeira, M'Dear".
(Anonymous) wrote:
Nov. 24th, 2006 06:30 am (UTC)
Figures. I think the UCLA cop tasering video is a fairly good Roschart(sp?) test for the anarchist/libertarian divide :)

Mike
(Anonymous) wrote:
Nov. 25th, 2006 09:19 pm (UTC)
zeugma
Nice Word, but the example you give looks more like syllepsis than zeugma. I know that some dictionaries now give them a synonyms, but zeguma usually refers to an error, as in "he played a song and dance", rather than a word play. At least that's the way it once was.
[info]patrissimo wrote:
Nov. 25th, 2006 09:26 pm (UTC)
Re: zeugma
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllepsis

"Zeugma (from the Greek word "ζεύγμα", meaning "yoke") is a figure of speech describing the joining of two or more parts of a sentence with a common verb or noun. A zeugma employs both ellipsis, the omission of words which are easily understood, and parallelism, the balance of several words or phrases. The result is a series of similar phrases joined or yoked together by a common and implied noun or verb. In a modern sense, the zeugma has been classified as a synonym for syllepsis, a particular kind of zeugma, although there is a clear distinction between the two in classical treatises written on the subject."

"Syllepsis is the term given to a zeugma when the clauses are not parallel either in meaning or grammar. They are figures of speech in which one word simultaneously modifies two or more other words such that the modification must be understood differently with respect to each modified word. This creates a semantic incongruity which is often humorous."

So it is syllepsis that refers to the example I gave, as you say.

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