Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A figure of speech in which two words connected by a conjunction are used to express a single notion that would normally be expressed by an adjective and a substantive, such as grace and favor instead of gracious favor.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In rhet, a figure which consists in using two words connected by a copulative conjunction to express a single complex idea; especially, substitution of two substantives so coördinated for a substantive with its attributive adjective or limiting genitive.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Gram.) A figure in which the idea is expressed by two nouns connected by
and , instead of by a noun and limiting adjective.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun rhetoric a
figure of speech used foremphasis , where two words joined byand are used to express a single complex idea.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun use of two conjoined nouns instead of a noun and modifier
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The reflexive line that impugns the "sceptre bearing line" (l. 268) of violence transforms its word for sword, by phonetic anagram, and across the grammar of hendiadys, when the effect of conquest is said to "spread the plague of blood and gold."
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The rhetorical point of interest is that that's hendiadys.
"When a family is burning to death in front of your eyes, rules should go out of the window – especially with kids. Everybody wanted to try and help." Ann Althouse 2009
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Three appendixes list instances of hendiadys in Hamlet, tabulate its incidence in all the plays, and discuss some misleading definitions in the OED.
Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2008
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The process of editing my dissertation has become one long performance of getting rid of unnecessary hendiadys.
Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2008
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Literally "one from two," hendiadys refers to a pair of words linked by "and" that expresses a single meaning neither word alone conveys.
Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2008
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Fowler calls these and actually just about all the examples in this post--he follows the strict definition of hendiadys "Siamese twins," and is on a warpath against the tautological ones like "betwixt and between."
Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2008
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I'd like to claim that I use hendiadys consciously and of course evocatively!
Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2008
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Rare in English speech or other English poetry, hendiadys joins nouns, or sometimes adjectives, in a false or specious union e.g., "sound and fury" for "furious sound".
Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2008
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Don't tell Mothra Stewart about hendiadys, whatever you do.
Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2008
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In all his plays Shakespeare uses the Vergilian figure hendiadys some three hundred times, most frequently in his middle plays and most of all in Hamlet.
Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2008
amerikanka commented on the word hendiadys
the expression of a single idea by two words, connected by "and" (e.g., "nice and warm!"), when one could be used to modify the other (e.g., "nicely warm!")
February 25, 2008
sarra commented on the word hendiadys
an excellent example! Also “good and ready” — I wonder if “hard and fast” counts? “new and improved”?
March 14, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word hendiadys
"Now we've seen that justice will collapse through abuse of hendiadys."
The No Variations by Luis Chitarroni, translated by Darren Koolman, p 165
September 17, 2013