paraprosdokian

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek παρά (pará, “against”) + προσδοκία (prosdokía, “expectation”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌpæɹəˌpɹoʊsˈdoʊkiən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

Examples
Where there's a will, I want to be in it. I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it. Come again when you can't stay so long.

paraprosdokian (plural paraprosdokians)

1. (rhetoric) A figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part.
   • 1906, J. C. Stobart, The Johnson Epoch (Epochs of English literature), volume VII, London: E. Arnold, page 144:

     This style of comic poetry, a kind of parody of the Ballad, a series of quatrains generally leading up to a paraprosdokian or surprise in the fourth line, was initiated by [Oliver] Goldsmith in this merry tale.

Translations

figure of speech

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (no corresponding term exists) 句子在最後有意想不到的結尾, 句子在最后有意想不到的结尾 (jùzi zài zuìhòu yìxiǎngbudào de jiéwěi)

• Finnish: yllätys (fi)

See also

• bathos
• non sequitur

Further reading

• paraprosdokian on Wikipedia.Wikipedia