#syllepsis

[shimyereh]

He may have been on the right track to solving the case, but he was also on a stolen horse, the evening news, and my nerves.

[puddingparamour]

She was in both the state of misery and Missouri.

[heartbroke-and-inchoate]

spring is sprung and I am too

[drlinguo]

Series: Nerdy Semantics

Semantics is so much fun!

“The symbol z indicates an introspective judgment that the sentence is ‘zeugmatic’. The traditional term for this figure of speech is ‘zeugma’ or, more accurately, ‘syllepsis’. ‘Zeugma’ originally referred more generally to cases in which a word is shared between clauses, regardless of whether it has different senses in each context, while ‘syllepsis’ specifically refers to those cases of zeugma in which the word appears in construction with two clauses ‘while properly applying to or agreeing with only one of them . . . or applying to them in different senses (e.g. literal and metaphorical)’ (OED entry for syllepsis, emphasis added) The term ‘zeugma’ is now often used in this narrower sense, as equivalent to syllepsis, and more specifically, for the application of one word in different senses; [...]” (Wechsler 2015: 11--12)

[arialk]

Definition and Examples of Zeugma in Rhetoric

A cool little site that describes different terms we've been studying. This page in particular talks about the difference between zeugma and syllepsis. And it used a Star Trek and a Shakespeare quote right next to each other - Bonus!!

[invisibledragon]

The other thing I really love is syllepsis. This is where one single word is used with to two or more other parts of the sentence but must be understood differently in relation to each.

Example: He said as he hastened to put out the cat, the wine, his cigar and the lamps.

She lowered her standards by raising her glass, her courage, her eyes and his hopes. (Both from Madeira M'Dear, Flanders and Swann).

Our teeth and ambitions are bared. (Be Prepared, The Lion King).

[thehorologicon-blog]

[yourwordoftheday]

zeugma

\ZOOG-muh\ [noun]

The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words when it is appropriate to only one of them or is appropriate to each but in a different way.

History & Origin

Zeugma (1580s) stems from the Greek word of the same spelling which literally meant "a yoking," from zeugnynai "to yoke," derived from the Proto-Indo-European *yeug- "to join" (the shared root of Sanskrit yugam "yoke," yunjati "binds, harnesses," yogah "union;" Hittite yugan "yoke;" Greek zygon "yoke;" Old Church Slavonic igo, Old Welsh iou "yoke;" Lithuanian jungas "yoke," jungiu "fastened in a yoke;" Old English geoc "yoke;" probably also Latin iuxta "close by").

In zeugma, unlike syllepsis, the single word does not fit grammatically or idiomatically with one member of the pair. Thus, the first example below would be syllepsis, the second zeugma:

"You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit."(Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"Kill the boys and the luggage!" (Fluellen in William Shakespeare's Henry V)

Usage

"His first novel was filled with strange and humorous zeugma, like, 'It's a small apartment. I have barely enough room to lay my hat and a few friends.'"