Etymology

zeugma

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Today it means: The act of using a word, particularly an adjective or verb, to apply to more than one noun when its sense is appropriate to only one. Full definition →

Ancient Greek ζεῦγμα
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · borrowed fromζεῦγμα“yoking; a bond, a band”
  2. English todayzeugma

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ζεῦγμα (zeûgma, “yoking; a bond, a band”), from ζεύγνυμι (zeúgnumi, “to yoke; to join”), from ζεῦγος (zeûgos, “a yoke”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.