Definition:
A figure of speech in which two words joined by and express an idea that is more commonly expressed by an adjective and a substantive.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "one through two"Examples and Observations:
- "Expression of an idea by two nouns connected by 'and' instead of a noun and its qualifier: 'by length of time and siege' for 'by a long siege.' Puttenham offers an example: 'Not you, coy dame, your lowers and your looks,' for 'your lowering looks.' Peacham, ignoring the derivation of the term, defines it as the substituting, for an adjective, of a substantive with the same meaning: 'a man of great wisdom' for 'a wise man.' This redefinition would make it a kind of anthimeria."
(Richard Lanham, "Hendiadys," A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, University of California Press, 1991) - "We frequently join adjectives on the pattern of nice and warm, good and loud, big and fat, sick and tired, long and leggy. Each of these pairs represents a single concept in which the general idea contained in the first adjective is explained or specified or opened up by the second; and, insofar as such expressions may be continually invented, the pattern seems the closest thing to adjectival hendiadys in English. Formulaic phrases such as nice and and good and may be completed by virtually any adjective (or at least any pithy one) in the language. Being formulaic, however, they lack the elements of surprise, or improvisation, and of eccentric coordination that we find in classical hendiadys."
(George T. Wright, "Hendiadys and Hamlet," PMLA, March 1981) - "When Shakespeare's Hamlet talks about the 'chief good and market of [man's] time,' this is glossed over as 'profit' (4.4.54). Semantic equivalences are often enhanced . . . by phonological equivalences, as in 'bag and baggage.'"
(Heiner Peters, "Hendiadys," Encyclopedia of Rhetoric, Oxford University Press, 2001)
Pronunciation: hen-DEE-eh-dis
Also Known As: figure of twins
Alternate Spellings: endiadis, hendiasys
