enallage

American  

[en-al-uh-jee] / ɛnˈæl ə dʒi /

noun

Rhetoric.

1. the use of one grammatical form in place of another, as the plural for the singular in the editorial use of we.

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Etymology

Origin of enallage

1575–85; < Late Latin < Greek enallagḗ an interchange, derivative from base of enalláttein to give in exchange; cf. en- ², agio

Example Sentences

Several interpreters assume an enallage generis לה = לו, "and thus shall they call him."

From Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions. Vol. 2 by Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm

Mr. Payne complains of the obscurity of the original owing to abuse of the figure enallage; but I find them explicit enough, referring to some debauched elder after the type of Abu Nowas.

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 09 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

Boccaccio constantly uses this irregular form of enallage, especially in dialogue.

From The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Payne, John

In animated narrative, however, the present tense is often substituted for the past, by the figure enallage.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold

And when all men shall have adopted this enallage, the fault indeed will be banished, or metamorphosed, but with it will go an other sixth part of every English conjugation.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold