Figures of Speech Served Fresh

Change, Swap and Invent

Figures that shift grammar or tense, change one thing for another, self-interrupt, or invent new words.

 If you’d like your language with a twist, here are the most fruitful figures.

 

anacoluthon (an-a-COL-u-thon)
The grammar shift.

anastrophe (ann-ASS-tro- fee)
The poetic word-order switch.
Also see this.

anthimeria (an-thih-MARE-ee-uh)
The verbing figure.

anthypallage (an-thigh-PAL-uh-gee)
The "I’m there" figure. Ancient rhetoricians said it changed a case to make a point; Figaro uses it to change a tense.

antistasis (an-TIH-sta-sis)
The repeat that reverses a word’s meaning.
Also see this.

hysteron proteron
The word-order swap.

idiom (ID-ee-om)
The figure of inseparable words.

meiosis (mie-OH-sis)
The shrinking figure.
Also see this.

metallage (meh-TAL-ah-gee)
The “Don’t give me ‘why’” figure

metanoia (met-ah-NOY-a)
The self-correcting figure.

metonymy (meh-TON-ih-mee)
The figure of swap.

neologism (NEE-oh-loh-gism)
The newly minted word.

parelcon (pa-REL-con)
The "like" figure.

periphrasis (per-IF-ra-sis)
The figure that swaps a descriptive phrase for a proper name, or vice versa.
Also see this.

ploce (PLO-see)
The braided figure.  It repeats a word with another word or two in between, usually with a different connotation.

polyptoton (po-LIP-to-ton)
The root repeater.

synecdoche (sin-ECK-doe-kee)
The scale-changing figure.

traductio (trah-DOOK-tio)
A repetition that modifies a word.

yogiism (YOGEE-ism)
The idiot savant figure, named after the immortal Yogi Berra. (Also spelled yogism.)