hypallage

American  

[hi-pal-uh-jee, hahy-] / hɪˈpæl ə dʒi, haɪ- /

noun

Rhetoric.

1. the reversal of the expected syntactic relation between two words, as in “her beauty's face” for “her face's beauty.”

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hypallage British  

/ haɪˈpæləˌdʒiː /

noun

1. rhetoric a figure of speech in which the natural relations of two words in a statement are interchanged, as in the fire spread the wind

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Etymology

Origin of hypallage

1580–90; < Latin < Greek hypallagḗ interchange, equivalent to hyp- hyp- + allagḗ change ( all- all- + ag- (stem of ágein to lead; see -agogue) + -ē noun suffix)

Example Sentences

The rhetoricians call this "hypallage," because one word as it were is substituted for another.

From The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 by Cicero, Marcus Tullius

Professor R. J. Tarrant points out to me the hypallage in this passage.

From The Last Poems of Ovid by Akrigg, Mark Bear

The epithet is, by hypallage, transferred from the person to the dew or cold sweat which ‘dips’ or moistens his body.

From Milton's Comus by Bell, William

The usual explanation, which makes insertas an epithet transferred by a sort of hypallage from Luna to fenestras, is extremely violent, and makes the word little more than a repetition of se fundebat.

From The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil