Etymology

paraprosdokian

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Today it means: 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. Full definition →

Ancient Greek παρά
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · borrowed fromπαρά“against”
  2. English todayparaprosdokian

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

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekπαρά all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.