Word Of the Day . . ., syllepsis Options

[coldteablues]

This is from Merriam-Webster online for Dec 14:

syllepsis \suh-LEP-sis\ noun

1 : the use of a word to modify or govern syntactically two or more words with only one of which it formally agrees in gender, number, or case
*2 : the use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two adjacent words in the context with one literal and the other metaphorical

Example sentence:
As an example of syllepsis, the teacher gave Dickens's "All the girls were in tears and white muslin."

Did you know?
Charles Dickens was apparently a big fan of syllepses — his "She went home in a flood of tears and a sedan chair" is another example of one. Sentences like these are humorously incongruous, but they're not grammatically incorrect. "Syllepsis" has another meaning, however — illustrated by such sentences as "My sisters, and particularly my youngest sister, feel strongly about the matter" — and in this sense it is something to be avoided. The "sisters" sentence has a problem; it has two subjects, and only one of them agrees with the verb "feel." The word "syllepsis" derives from the Greek "syllēpsis," and ultimately from "syllambanein," meaning "to gather together." It has been used in English since at least 1550.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence