Pl. syllepses. Also 6 sill-. [a. late L. syllēpsis, a. Gr. σύλληψις, f. σύν SYN- + λῆψις taking (f. ληβ-, Attic f. λᾱβ-, lengthened f. λαβ-, stem of λαμβάνειν to take).]
1. Gram. and Rhet. A figure by which a word, or a particular form or inflexion of a word, is made to refer to two or more other words in the same sentence, while properly applying to or agreeing with only one of them (e.g., a masc. adj. qualifying two sbs., masc. and fem.; a sing. verb serving as predicate to two subjects, sing. and pl.), or applying to them in different senses (e.g., literal and metaphorical). Cf. ZEUGMA.
1577. Peacham, Gard. Eloquence, Fj. Syllepsis, when there is some common worde in vnlike clauses, [etc.].
1586. A. Day, Engl. Secretorie, II. (1625), 82. Syllepsis, when one verbe supplyeth two clauses, one person two roomes, or one word serueth to many senses, as, thus, Hee runnes for pleasure, I for feare.
1589. Puttenham, Engl. Poesie, III. xii. (Arb.), 176. But if such want be in sundrie clauses, and of seuerall congruities or sence, and the supply be made to serue them all, it is by the figure Sillipsis, whom for that respect we call the double supplie. … as in these verses,… Here my sweete sonnes and daughters all my blisse, Yonder mine owne deere husband buried is. Where ye see one verbe singular supplyeth the plurall and singular.
1616. S. Ward, Balm fr. Gilead (1628), 55. He that hath them not … may well conclude, Wee are assured [etc.]…. He speakes it in the plurall number by way of Syllepsis, changing the number, because hee would haue it the word of euery Christian.
1813. T. Jefferson, in H. S. Randall, Life (1858), III. ix. 391. Fill up all the ellipses and syllepses of Tacitus, Sallust, Livy, etc., and the elegance and force of their sententious brevity are extinguished.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 560. By the figure of speech called zeugma, or rather syllepsis, the same word … is … made to serve two purposes in the same sentence. A verb is often used with two clauses which is only appropriate to one of them, as in Pope’s line—‘See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crowned.’
2. In etymological sense: A taking together; a summary. nonce-use.
a. 1834. Coleridge, in Lit. Rem. (1839), IV. 191. A Creed is … a syllepsis of those primary fundamental truths … from which the Christian must commence his progression.
