paraprosdokian
Sign in to saveA paraprosdokian (), or '''par'hyponoian''', is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists, such as Groucho Marx.
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A paraprosdokian (), or '''par'hyponoian', is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists, such as Groucho Marx.
==Etymology== "Paraprosdokian" derives from Greek "against" and "expectation". The noun prosdokia occurs with the preposition para'' in Greek rhetorical writers of the 1st century BCE and the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, with the meaning "contrary to expectation" or "unexpectedly."
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “paraprosdokian” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.