Hendiadys

An idea presented by two different words, links with and, like “nice and warm” instead of “nicely warm.” Modification of a Greek phrase meaning “one through two.”1 It’s different than Merism because these two words are not opposites, but rather like adjectives to one another.

Mark Forsyth says this device creates ambiguity. Is Hamlet’s “book and volume” a voluminous book or a bookish volume?2

Examples include:

  • “It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.” —Shakespeare, Macbeth
  • “Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you.” —Leonard Cohen

  1. Hendiadys Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster ↩

  2. The Elements of Eloquence pg. 89 ↩

Notes mentioning this note

Avoid adjectives
Avoid adjectives “The dog barked loudly” is weaker than “The dog barked.” Some people, like Bob Dylan, may be able...
Figures of rhetoric
Figures of rhetoric [[Different types of repetition]] [[Alliteration]] [[Antithesis]] [[Merism]] [[Hendiadys]] [[Synaesthesia]] [[Tricolon]]
Hendiadys
Hendiadys An idea presented by two different words, links with and, like “nice and warm” instead of “nicely warm.” Modification...