Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In grammar, a figure consisting in the substitution of one form, inflection, or part of speech for another.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Gram.) A substitution, as of one part of speech for another, of one gender, number, case, person, tense, mode, or voice, of the same word, for another.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable, rhetoric Transformation from one grammatically correct form to another.
  • noun uncountable, rhetoric The substitution of one grammatical form for another that violates a grammatical rule.
  • noun rhetoric, countable An application of enallage.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a substitution of part of speech or gender or number or tense etc. (e.g., editorial `we' for `I')

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἐναλλαγή (enallage, "interchange, variation")

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Examples

  • Mr. Payne complains of the obscurity of the original owing to abuse of the figure enallage; but I find them explicit enough, referring to some debauched elder after the type of Abu Nowas.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Ans. That huper pantos, “for every one,” is here used for huper pantōn, “for all,” by an enallage of the number, is by all acknowledged.

    The Death of Death in the Death of Christ 1616-1683 1967

  • [FN#615] Here is a third enallage, the King returning to the first person, the oratio directa.

    Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

  • [FN#617] Here again is a fourth enallage; the scribe continuing the narrative.

    Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

  • Mr. Payne complains of the obscurity of the original owing to abuse of the figure enallage; but I find them explicit enough, referring to some debauched elder after the type of Abu Nowas.

    Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

  • [FN#328] Here is the normal enallage of persons, "luh" = to him for "lí" = to me.

    Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

  • [175] On the enallage [Greek: sômati] for [Greek: sômasi] see Griffiths.

    Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and the Seven Against Thebes 525 BC-456 BC Aeschylus 1840

  • [Greek: elpis esti] standing for [Greek: elpizousi], by a frequent enallage.

    Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and the Seven Against Thebes 525 BC-456 BC Aeschylus 1840

  • I will further spare four out of the seven figures of less note: emphasis, enallage, and the hysteron proteron you must have; because emphasis graces Irish diction, enallage unbinds it from strict grammatical fetters, and hysteron proteron allows it sometimes to put the cart before the horse.

    Tales and Novels — Volume 04 Maria Edgeworth 1808

  • [Footnote 355: This sudden change from the third to the second person, in speaking of Nicostratus, is a characteristic example of Boccaccio's constant abuse of the figure enallage in his dialogues.] [Footnote 356: _i. e._ those eyes.]

    The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio 1344

Comments

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  • JM knows we shouldn't overuse enallage.

    March 29, 2011