hendiadys

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 14, 2011 is: hendiadys • \hen-DYE-uh-dis\  • noun : the expression of an idea by the use of usually two independent words connected by and (as nice and warm) Examples: The hendiadys "good and loud" appears in many reviews of the concert. "In the source text, Claudius's distress is represented through doubling -- more specifically, in the form of a hendiadys where the two nouns 'discord' and 'dismay' are connected by 'and,' which creates intensification." -- From Roshni Mooneeram and Jonathan Hope's 2009 book From Creole to Standard: Shakespeare, Language, and Literature in a Postcolonial Context Did you know? William Shakespeare often used hendiadys. For example, his character Macbeth, speaking of the passage of life, says "It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing." For Shakespeare, the construction "sound and fury" was more effective than "furious sound." The word "hendiadys" is a modification of the Greek phrase "hen dia dyoin." Given that "hen dia dyoin" literally means "one through two," it's a perfect parent for a word that describes the expression of a single concept using two words, as in the phrase "rough and tough." As you can imagine, hendiadys is a common element in everyday speech and writing. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.