Wednesday, September 3, 2014

September 4, 2014 Thursday "Zeugma"

Reading the Merriam Webster Dictionary Backwards

September 4, 2014  Thursday  "zeugman"

blog address: Readingthedictionarybackwards.blogspot.com
email: ishmaelish36@blogspot.com

You can find my other blog of pediatric anecdotes, poetry, artwork and literature at ishmaelish36.blogspot.com


zeugma  [Latin, a joining]

     a word that modifies two words, applying to each in a different sense, i.e. "she opened her heart and her home to the homeless boy."

     See the wonderful Modern English Usage by Fowler.   A treasure.

    An aside: zeug means "rubbish or junk" in German (sounds like 'soyg')

    Ok, some other loose "zug" associations:

     In chess, zugzwang means to force the opponent to make a bad move - they have no other moves available.  Zug in German means "move"  (sounds like 'zoog'); and zwang means 'to force'  (sounds like
'svahng').


     



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