Syphilitic What? Who? Oh…
syllepsis n.
1. the use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two adjacent words in the context with one literal and the other metaphorical
2. the use of a word or expression to perform two syntactic functions, esp. to modify two or more words of which at least one does not agree in number, case, or gender
Huh? Say what?
Some of the best examples of the use of syllepses can be drawn from one of the most prolific users, Charles Dickens. Two of his usages to demonstrate:
She went home in a flood of tears and a sedan chair.
All the girls were in tears and white muslin.
The next time you are in a boring meeting and a blue funk, try constructing a syllepsis or three of your own. It’s easy. I just did one. Did you catch it?
7 Comments so far
I think you’ve done gone erudite on us. You be way above us, Winston, with your syllepsises, syllepses, syllepsi. (meeting and funk? Do I win anything?)
Sweet!!
I’m sorry I’m not supposed to do any thing metaphorical for at least another week.
I’m commenting on your post and a grey keyboard.
It’s harder than it looks.
She drove carefully, listening to the Rolling Stones and her intuition, as she trailed her lover.
Try as I might, I can’t come up with a syllepsis to share here. So I think I’ll just sit on this awhile in my office chair.
Wow! I love this word! Jon was in a hurry in the office!