syllepsis

Syllepsis is a rhetorical figure in which one word governs or is applied to two or more other words, but in different senses — typically one literal and one figurative — producing a deliberate semantic incongruity that resolves into pointed meaning. The defining parameters are: (1) a single word (usually a verb or adjective) used with multiple objects, (2) at least one sense-shift between literal and non-literal application, and (3) the resulting juxtaposition creates a rhetorical effect — wit, irony, or emphasis — rather than being mere error. It persists through grammatical and rhetorical tradition, codified in rhetoric textbooks and recognized in literary analysis as a named device distinct from zeugma (its close relative, where the sense-shift is purely grammatical rather than semantic).\n\n[formal: syllepsis | substrate: mind | horizon: a life | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.17]