Antanaclasis

Look up antanaclasis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

In rhetoric, antanaclasis (from the Greek: ἀντανάκλασις, antanáklasis, meaning "reflection") is the stylistic trope of repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time. Antanaclasis is a common type of pun, and like other kinds of pun, it is often found in slogans.

Examples

• A famous example of antanaclasis is seen in William Shakespeare's Henry V when the King sends the French ambassadors back to their master with an answer to the insulting gift of tennis-balls. He says, "for many a thousand widows/ Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands; Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;" (HENRY V, I, ii, 284-286)
• "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." —Benjamin Franklin
• "If you aren't fired (up) with enthusiasm, you will be fired, with enthusiasm." —Vince Lombardi
• "The long cigarette that's long on flavor." —from an advertisement for Pall Mall cigarettes
• "Sorry, Charlie. StarKist doesn't want tunas with good taste — StarKist wants tunas that taste good." —from 1980s StarKist tuna advertisements
• "Put out the light, then put out the light." —Shakespeare's Othello
• "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." —Groucho Marx [1]
• "If you don't get it, you don't get it." —The Washington Post slogan
• "She is nice from far, but far from nice!" —Popular.

References

• "Michael Moncur's (Cynical) Quotations". http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/26.html. Retrieved on 2007-06-26. 
• Corbett, Edward P.J. Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. Oxford University Press, New York, 1971.

See also

• Figure of speech
• Polyptoton
• Pun
• Rhetoric
• Syllepsis
• List of linguistic example sentences