Also 7–8 enallagy, enalagy. [a. L. enallagē, a. Gr. ἐναλλαγή change, related to ἐναλλάσσειν get to change.]
1. Gram. The substitution of one grammatical form for another, e.g., of sing. for pl., of present for past tense, etc.
1583. Fulke, Defence, 126. In the participle … is a manifest enallage or change of the gender.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 115. Their Grammarians make it [Elohim] an Enallage of Number, chiefly to express excellencie in the Persons, to whom its referd.
1656. Owen, Wks., 1851, VIII. 403. There may be an enallagy of number, the nation for the nations.
1737. Waterland, Eucharist (ed. 2), 373. Enallage of tenses, which is frequent in Scripture.
1832. in Webster; and in mod. Dicts.
† 2. Rhet. (See quot.) Obs.–0
1736. Bailey, Enallage, a figure whereby we change or invert the order of the terms in a discourse.
