adynaton, n.
Pronunciation: Brit. /adᵻˈnɑːtɒn/, /adᵻˈnɑːt(ə)n/, U.S. /ædəˈnɑtn/
Inflections: Plural adynata, adynatons.
Etymology: < post-classical Latin adynaton impossibility (1549 or earlier), (in rhetoric) figure of speech by which an impossible situation is used for emphasis (1557 or earlier) and its etymon ancient Greek ἀδύνατον impossibility, use as noun of neuter of ἀδύνατος impossible < ἀ- a- prefix6 + δυνατός possible < δύνασθαι to be powerful (see dynast n.) + -τός, suffix forming verbal adjectives.
†1. An impossibility. Obs.
1654 W. Charleton Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana i. vii. 75 It is a manifest Adynaton, that there should be a General Time, without a General Motion.
1655 H. W. Medit. upon Marks of True Church of Christ ix. 123 Divines and Lawyers, should.resolve whether some new form of making Clergy-men, might not be found out, without dependence of the Church of Rome; but the ridiculousnesse of this adynaton, soon made that conventicle desist from proceeding further.
1746 J. Hervey Let. Mar. in Whole Wks. (1810) VI. xxix. 19 It seems impossible..that God should relinquish his claim to their profoundest homage. This would be to deny himself; which the apostle reckons among the Adynata.
2. Rhetoric. A figure of speech by which an impossible (or highly unlikely) situation is used for emphasis; an instance of this.
1938 Amer. Jrnl. Philol. 59 244 Most frequent in bucolic, elegiac, and dramatic poetry, the adynaton finds a place also in epic, lyric, and satire.
1957 Classical Philol. 52 168/2 Portents..are of course common form in tragedy, and the figure known as adynaton (i.e., ‘sooner shall rivers run from the sea than I forsake thee’, etc.) is common form in rhetoric.
1999 R. F. Thomas Reading Virgil & his Texts (2002) v. 158 In a list of adynata..he had included wolves fleeing from sheep, oaks producing golden apples (a double impossibility), and the alder producing the flower of the narcissus.
2008 M. Wild Christopher Smart & Satire 4 Mrs. Midnight is usually using the rhetorical trope of adynaton, or impossibilia, as a weapon of ridicule or satire.
Written by NativeEnglish
Native English Spain is dedicated to make learning English simple, fun and affordable for Spanish people.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment