anacoluthon
Americannoun
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a construction involving a break in grammatical sequence, as
It makes me so—I just get angry.
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an instance of anacoluthia.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of anacoluthon
1700–10; < Greek anakólouthon, neuter of anakólouthos not following, equivalent to an- an- 1 + akólouthos marching together ( a- together + kolouth-, gradational variant of keleuth- road, march + -os adj. suffix
Vocabulary lists containing anacoluthon
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In speaking, he is prone to anacoluthon – sentences whose grammar collapses – and reflexive repetition.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 13, 2017
Borisimus has an instinctive grasp of rhetorical devices, such as digressio and anacoluthon, that lesser mortals such as myself have spent a lifetime learning.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 2, 2013
“Leo Steinberg told me anacoluthon referred to me,” said Ms. Schnabel, while guests streamed into the Hole Gallery on the Bowery, the host of her show.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2011
It has also been suggested that the anacoluthon is meant to represent Kent's sleepiness, which prevents him from finishing the sentence, and induces him to dismiss his thoughts and yield to his drowsiness.
From Shakespearean Tragedy Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by Bradley, A. C. (Andrew Cecil)
C. L. N. A. I. J. The anacoluthon in line 3, and the missing rhyme before the burden, in line 4, are characteristic of Khayyam.
From The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam by Khayyam, Omar
Neither is the same precision required in Greek as in Latin or English, nor in earlier Greek as in later; there was nothing shocking to the contemporary of Thucydides and Plato in anacolutha and repetitions.
From Charmides by Jowett, Benjamin
After he had read a few words, he would bang the book down on the table and continue pouring forth inextricable anacolutha.
From The Loom of Youth by Waugh, Alec
It is in writers of great mental vivacity—more taken up with the thought than with the mode of its expression—that we may expect to find anacolutha most frequently.
From The Expositor's Bible: Ephesians by Findlay, G. G.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
