What’s a figure of speech? Words taken out of their literal meaning to create a vivid or dramatic picture. Play with them in your writing!
Aphorisms
Aphorisms are short, pointed sentences expressing a wise or clever observation or a general truth. Examples:
- A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you’re in deep water.
- If you don’t have a sense of humor, you probably don’t have any sense at all.
- There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity.
Eponym
“Proper names that have become improper and uncommonly common.” That’s how author Willard R. Espy described eponyms, which are words coined after people’s names.
Examples:
Byronic: One who is melancholic, passionate, melodramatic, and disregards societal norms. Named after poet Lord Byron (1788–1824) who displayed these characteristics as did his poetry.
Orwellian: Of or relating to a totalitarian state in which citizens’ activities are tightly controlled. Named after George Orwell, pen name of Eric Blair (1903–1950), whose novel Nineteen Eighty-Four depicted a futuristic totalitarian state.
Draconian: Unusually harsh. Named after Draco (late 7th century BCE), Athenian legislator, noted for the harshness of his code of laws.
Paraprosdokian
A figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; it causes the reader to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It’s how you add “funny” to your writing!
Examples:
“Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.”
“A friend in need is a friend I don’t need.” –Deepak Jhangiani
“Honesty is the best policy until the policy expires.” –Deepak Jhangiani
“You can lead a horse to water…but if you can teach him to roll over on his back and backstroke, you got something.” –Rudy Cluke
“If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.”
“War does not determine who is right—only who is left.”
“Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.”
Barbara McNichol is a nonfiction editor, who works with authors, speakers, and business professionals to add power to their pen through the written word. Barbara wrote Word Trippers: The Ultimate Source for Choosing the Perfect Word When It Really Matters. She offers helpful writing tips weekly and a course to take your writing and editing to the next level: “WordShops: Strengthen Everything You Write.”
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