enallage

[en-al-uh-jee]

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of enallage¹

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

Example Sentences

One favorite device, for instance, is called “enallage,” in which an adjective is pointedly displaced from the noun it should, logically, modify.

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Perhaps Mr. Held sought to employ poetical enallage, but even so, the adjective does not correspond with "slowly"; besides, the use of enallage in prose is at best highly questionable.

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Le Moyne thinks that we need have no difficulty in assuming such an enallage.

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

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

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