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"trope"

From Richard Nordquist,
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Definition:

Rhetorical device that produces a shift in the meaning of words--traditionally contrasted with a scheme, which changes only the shape of a phrase.

Etymology:

From the Greek, "a turn"

Examples:

  • Metaphor:
    His life is a garden, our friends are greed
    Our friends are water, our friends are weeds
    The government’s a gardener
    He pimps for profit
    And makes money off of shovels and hoes
    His drugs are pesticides that kill the good and the bad
    Either way the product’s tainted
    The ax hits the ground covered in blood."
    (Calm, "Anti-Smiles")

  • metonymy:
    "The piano has been drinking
    My necktie's asleep
    The combo went back to New York, and left me all alone
    The jukebox has to take a leak
    Have you noticed that the carpet needs a haircut?
    And the spotlight looks just like a prison break
    And the telephone's out of cigarettes
    As usual the balcony's on the make
    And the piano has been drinking, heavily
    The piano has been drinking
    And he's on the hard stuff tonight."
    (Tom Waits, "The Piano Has Been Drinking")

  • irony:
    "The First World War, boys,
    It came and it went;
    The reason for fighting
    I never did get.
    But I learned to accept it,
    Accept it with pride;
    For you don't count the dead
    When God's on your side.

    "The Second World War, boys,
    It came to an end.
    We forgave the Germans,
    And then we were friends.
    Though they murdered six million,
    In the ovens they fried,
    The Germans now, too, have
    God on their side."
    (Bob Dylan, "With God on Our Side")
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