Topic · from the English index · as printed

Paronomasia

SOME GRAMMATICAL AND RHETORICAL FIGURES

Paronomasia (παρονομασίᾱ) is play upon words.

οὐ γὰρ τὸν τρόπον ἀλλὰ τὸν τόπον μετήλλαξεν for he changed not his disposition but his position Aes. 3.78. Often in etymological word-play; as Πρόθοος θοός B 758, Μέλητος . . . ἐμέλησεν P. A. 26a, Παυσανίου παυσαμένου P. S. 185c, εἰς . . . τόπον . . . ἀειδῆ, εἰς Αἵδου to an invisible place, to Hades P. Ph. 80d. Cp. “Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old”: Shakespeare. Sometimes this figure deals with the same word taken in different senses (homonyms): ἅμα γὰρ ἡμεῖς τε τῆς ἀρχῆς ἀπεστερούμεθα καὶ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἀρχὴ τῶν κακῶν ἐγίγνετοno sooner were we deprived of the first place than the first disaster came upon the GreeksI. 4.119.