anghraine:

thranduilland:

whateverhumans:

siesiegirl:

professorsparklepants:

tuesdayisfordancing:

ozymandias271:

“our teeth and ambitions are bared” is a zeugma

and it’s a zeugma where one of the words is literal and one is metaphorical which is the BEST KIND

I didn’t know about zeugmas until just now! That is so awesome, everybody: 

zeug·ma

ˈzo͞oɡmə/

noun

1. a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g.,John and his license expired last week ) or to two others of which it semantically suits only one (e.g., with weeping eyes and hearts ).

ISN’T THAT AWESOME??

#in english class in high school my teacher had us write our own zeugmas in class#and one guy came up with ‘he fell from her favor… and the window’#i am forever looking for opportunities to use that one

She dropped her dress and inhibitions at the door.

What’s this? My favorite rhetorical device showing up on my dashboard?

IT HAS A NAMEEEE!! OH MY GOD!!!

ZEUGMA IS THE GREATEST

(Nitpicking: It doesn’t require one of the meanings to be metaphorical, however. Both meanings that the verb takes can be literally true. e.g., One of the most famous zeugmas is Pope’s “Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey / Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.” Take is literal in both cases, just different.)