| Front | syllepsis \si-LEP-sis\ |
|---|---|
| Back | noun Grammar. A construction in which a word governs two or more other words but agrees in number, gender, or case with only one, or has a different meaning when applied to each of the words, as in He lost his coat and his temper. [Charles Dickens was apparently a big fan of syllepses — his "She went home in a flood of tears and a sedan chair" is another example of one. Sentences like these are humorously incongruous, but they're not grammatically incorrect. "Syllepsis" has another meaning, however — illustrated by such sentences as "My sisters, and particularly my youngest sister, feel strongly about the matter" — and in this sense it is something to be avoided. The "sisters" sentence has a problem; it has two subjects, and only one of them agrees with the verb "feel." The word "syllepsis" derives from the Greek "syllēpsis," and ultimately from "syllambanein," meaning "to gather together." It has been used in English since at least 1550.] "'Crossing', first of all, is an instance of syllepsis, a figure in which one word is a pun for two different senses. Not only is the `Visionary' (the character in the essay, as distinguished from the historical Emerson) literally moving from one place to another, but he is also at a crossroads, a crux. Cross, deriving from the Latin crux, means not only a physical cross, but a fateful juncture." - Eric Wilson; "Terrible simplicity": Emerson's Metaleptic Style; Style; Spring 1997. |
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