Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Syllepsis.
- noun A construction in which one word or phrase is understood to fill a parallel syntactic role in two or more clauses or phrases, as with the verb was in She was upstairs, and her husband downstairs.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A figure in grammar in which two nouns are joined to a verb suitable to only one of them, but suggesting another verb suitable to the other noun; or in which an adjective is similarly used with two nouns.
- noun [capitalized] [NL.] In entomology, a genus of hemipterous insects.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Gram.) A figure by which an adjective or verb, which agrees with a nearer word, is, by way of supplement, referred also to another more remote.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun rhetoric The act of using a word, particularly an adjective or verb, to apply to more than one noun when its sense is appropriate to only one.
- noun rhetoric
Syllepsis .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun use of a word to govern two or more words though appropriate to only one
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word zeugma.
Examples
-
This is usually called a zeugma; it's a purely structural way of using prepositions in an odd way, for effect e.g., humor.
Archive 2005-09-01 2005
-
Lauterbur submitted a paper to the journal Nature outlining his discovery – which he gave the rather grand name of zeumatography, from the Greek word zeugma, or yoke, to signify the fact that the technique links chemical and spatial information.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2003 - Perspectives 2003
-
This is usually called a zeugma; it's a purely structural way of using prepositions in an odd way, for effect e.g., humor.
-
The people speak of their land as dying by a kind of zeugma, for the land deteriorates if it be not worked, and here their plea is for seed.
Exposition of Genesis: Volume 1 1892-1972 1942
-
He calls her by a kind of zeugma "your daughter," though she is but Jacob's daughter; however, all have the disposal of her in hand.
Exposition of Genesis: Volume 1 1892-1972 1942
-
Apparently this type of "zeugma" (yes, there are many types) is called "syllepsis."
-
I should note that the word "zeugma" appears in Westlaw's Allcases database 20 times -- all of them either in the name Zeugma Corp. or the title of Libert H. Boeynaems,
-
I'd like to give a familiar quote -- preferably from a famous song, play, novel, or movie -- that contains a zeugma, which is to say "The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words when it is ... appropriate to each but in a different way, as in to wage war and peace or On his fishing trip, he caught three trout and a cold.
British Blogs 2008
-
I'd like to give a familiar quote -- preferably from a famous song, play, novel, or movie -- that contains a zeugma, which is to say "The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words when it is ... appropriate to each but in a different way, as in to wage war and peace or On his fishing trip, he caught three trout and a cold.
-
2D: Have a break at 4: 00, say (take tea) - when I first learned what "zeugma" was, this was the example:
reesetee commented on the word zeugma
Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
--Groucho Marx
February 16, 2007
rek commented on the word zeugma
compare with syllepsis
June 21, 2007
slumry commented on the word zeugma
Ha! I used the Groucho Marx quotation this week, and it was the first thing that came to mind when I read the definition of zeugma!
June 21, 2007
arby commented on the word zeugma
Love the concept, don't really care for the word itself tho. It sounds like some kind of disease. Or maybe a car. "Try the new Zeugma - 50 miles to the gallon!"
July 17, 2007
slumry commented on the word zeugma
I agree, it is an unlikely sounding word. Zooming zits!
July 17, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word zeugma
Zooming zits? Lucky you, mine usually just plod along.
July 18, 2007
slumry commented on the word zeugma
I was thinking of it as an unpleasant oath playing on the letter zee. ;-) For instance, Great zooming zits, that's ugly!
July 18, 2007
reesetee commented on the word zeugma
Zoiks! ;-)
July 18, 2007
arby commented on the word zeugma
Zounds!
July 19, 2007
rweintr commented on the word zeugma
It is important to keep zeugmatic tires properly inflated.
March 8, 2008
ofravens commented on the word zeugma
"Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take---and sometimes Tea."
--Alexander Pope, "The Rape of the Lock," Canto III
March 9, 2008
johnmperry commented on the word zeugma
cf litotes
July 20, 2008
myth commented on the word zeugma
What is the governing word in: "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana?"
Can a governing word switch parts of speech?
flies is a verb and a noun
like is a preposition and a verb
Does Zeugma refer to a governing word (like the definition here) or a governing verb? Is Zuegma (governing verb) a type of syllepsis (governing word) or the other way around? Neither of my books on Rhetoric gives a definitive answer.
October 12, 2008
gangerh commented on the word zeugma
Don't have any answers for you, myth. I do know that my home is infested with time flies and I don't like it.
October 12, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word zeugma
You should buy an arrow trap.
October 12, 2008
gangerh commented on the word zeugma
Can't even find anywhere to buy bananas, 'gus.
October 12, 2008
gangerh commented on the word zeugma
And, perversely, many vegetable flies like rooted but fruit flies off the shelves.
October 12, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word zeugma
Did you tell your grocer "It looks like you don't have any bananas"? What did he say?
October 12, 2008
gangerh commented on the word zeugma
"Yes."
October 12, 2008
dontcry commented on the word zeugma
I have a time flies problem too, g. Maybe we're having too much fun...
October 12, 2008
gangerh commented on the word zeugma
Lovely play, d! And my greengrocer tells me he has a fruit flies problem. Especially with bananas!!!!
October 12, 2008
dontcry commented on the word zeugma
No!?
October 12, 2008
bilby commented on the word zeugma
Do you think I have bananas?
October 12, 2008
mollusque commented on the word zeugma
Yes, we know you have bananas.
October 12, 2008
frindley commented on the word zeugma
I always thought that fruit flies prefer an orange.
October 12, 2008
dontcry commented on the word zeugma
I don't know about that -- but time flies prefer fun!
October 13, 2008
fbharjo commented on the word zeugma
zeugma is an odd yokemate - a nonparallel juxtaposition
October 13, 2008
bojan commented on the word zeugma
The farmers in the valley grew potatoes, peanuts, and bored.
He lost his coat and his temper.
The kleptomaniac illusionist stole the show and my wallet.
July 17, 2011