What is “Zeugma”?

Zeugma is a rhetoric device that yokes one part of speech - often the main verb - to other parts of a sentence, which usually appear in form of a series.

There are different zeugma types depending on the position of the governing verb.

• Prozeugma (beginning position)
• Hypozeugma (ending position)
• Epizeugma (beginning or ending position)
• Mesozeugma (middle position)

There are further zeugma types depending on a governing noun.

• Diazeugma (a single subject governs several verbs or verbal constructions)
• Hypozeuxis (every clause in a series of parallel clauses has its own different verb)

Examples of hypozeugma:

All people, every woman, every man, and every child should have the opportunity to live in peace.

Absolutely exhausted from the in-class essay and devastated from the news she fell asleep at 5 p.m.

The screaming library representative, the sleeping pilot, and the hydrophopic bath keeper were all fired.

--> Use of a series of subjects with single predicate.

The different forms of zeugma are useful tools, partly for economic reasons as you don't need to repeat certain words over and over again. In addition, they serve as a device for connecting thoughts and putting emphasis on a statement.

Works Cited:

Burton, Gideon. Silva Rhetoricae. Zeugma. Brigham Young University. Web. 22. Jan. 2017. <http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Figures/Z/zeugma.htm>

Green, Roland et al. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. 4^th ed. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2012.