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Hendiadys (/hɛnˈdaɪ.ədɪs/) is afigure of speech used for emphasis—"The substitution of aconjunction for asubordination". The basic idea is to use two words linked by the conjunction "and" instead of the one modifying the other.
Hendiadys in English is also known astwo for one andfigure of twins. Although the underlying phrase isGreek:ἓν διὰ δυοῖν,romanized: hen dia duoin,lit. 'one through two', the only other forms occasionally found in English arehendiaduo andhendiaduous, the latter of which the 17th-centuryEnglish Biblical commentatorMatthew Poole used in his commentary onGenesis 3:16,Proverbs 1:6, andIsaiah 19:20.[1]
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The typical result of a hendiadys is to transform anoun-plus-adjective into two nouns joined by aconjunction. For example,sound and fury from theTomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow speech inMacbeth seems to offer a more striking image than "furious sound". In this example, as is typically the case, the subordinate idea initially present in the adjective is transformed into a noun in its own right.
Another example isDieu et mon droit, present in thecoat of arms of the United Kingdom. Hendiadys is most effective in English when the adjectival and nominal forms of the word are identical. Thus "the cold wind went down the hall" becomesthe cold and the wind went down the hall. Likewise,he came despite rain and weather instead of "he came despite the rainy weather".
Two verbs (as in the case of acatenative verb) can be so joined:come and get it (alsocome get it in American English) andFowler says thattry and... for "try to..." is a "true example" of hendiadys.[2]The etymology oftry and... is explained in a "Usage Note" in the online Merriam Webster Dictionary.[3]
The conjunction may be elided (parataxis):This coffee is nice and hot can becomeThis is nice hot coffee; in both cases one is saying that the coffee is hot to a nice degree, not that the coffee itself would be nice even if cold.
When hendiadys fails in its effects, it can sound merely redundant. For example, the Latin gradecum amicitia atque pace, literallywith friendship and peace, which initially contained hendiadys for emphasis, is often translated instead as "with peaceful friendship", which lacks hendiadys, and can therefore be interpreted to lack the same emphasis as the original phrase.
Hendiadys is often used inLatin poetry. There are many examples in Virgil'sAeneid, e.g., Book 1, line 54:vinclis et carcere, literally translated as "with chains and prison", but meaning "with prison chains".
In theHebrew Bible, inExodus 15:4, theBiblical Hebrew:מַרְכְּבֹת פַּרְעֹה וְחֵילוֹ,lit. 'chariots of Pharaoh and his army' means "the chariots ofPharaoh's army".[4]
InLeviticus 25:47, the Hebrew saysגֵּר וְתוֹשָׁב "alien and resident", but the phrase means a "resident alien".[citation needed]
InLamentations 2:9, the Hebrew saysאִבַּד וְשִׁבַּר "ruined and broken", but the phrase means "destroyed completely" or "smashed to bits".
InIsaiah 4:5, the phrase translated "cloud by day and smoke" is sometimes interpreted as a hendiadys meaning "a cloud of smoke by day".[5]
InMark 11:24,Koine Greek:ὅσα προσεύχεσθε καὶ αἰτεῖσθε,lit. 'whatever you pray and ask', means "whatever you ask in prayer".[6]
William Shakespeare uses hendiadys throughout his canon, most notably inHamlet. When cautioning his sisterOphelia,Laertes makes use of this rhetorical trope repeatedly with "safety and health" (1.3.20), "voice and yielding" (1.3.22), and "morn and liquid dew" (1.3.41). Perhaps the most famous use of hendiadys in the play isHamlet's own "Oh what a rogue and peasant slave am I” (2.2.538).
Hendiadys is the preferred terminology used to describe some types of compounding in Turkic linguistics. Johanson, in his discussion of Turkic compounding, considers compounds of synonymous components to be hendiadys:
The asyndetic type noun + noun is also used in coordinative compounds, so-called twin words or binomes. In this case, two parallel nouns with similar meanings form a synonym compound,hendiadys, ... or a hyponym compound to express a higher concept ...[7]
Hendiadys is different from these:
No less prominent is the first of several hendiadyadic elements that significantly enrich the poetic discourse in the Song of the Sea (Exod. 15.1-18).
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