Hendiadys is a figure of speech used for emphasis—"The substitution of a conjunction for a subordination". The basic idea is to use two words linked by the conjunction "and" instead of the one modifying the other. English names for hendiadys include two for one and figure of twins. The term hendiaduo may also be used. The 17th century EnglishBiblical commentatorMatthew Poole referred to "hendiaduos" in his comments on, and.
Use and effect
The typical result of a hendiadys is to transform a noun-plus-adjective into two nouns joined by a conjunction. For example, sound and fury seems to offer a more striking image than "furious sound". In this example, as typically, the subordinate idea originally present in the adjective is transformed into a noun in and of itself. Another example is Dieu et mon droit, present in the coat of arms of the United Kingdom. In fact, hendiadys is most effective in English when the adjectival and nominal forms of the word are identical. Thus "the cold wind went down the hall" becomes the cold and the wind went down the hall. He came despite rain and weather instead of "He came despite the rainy weather". Two verbs can be so joined: come and get it and Fowler says that try and... for "try to..." is a "true example" of hendiadys. The etymology of try and... is explained in a "Usage Note" in the online Merriam Webster Dictionary The conjunction may be elided : This coffee is nice and hot can become This is nice hot coffee; in both cases one is saying that the coffee is hot to a nice degree, not that the coffee itself would be nice even if cold. When hendiadys fails in its effects, it can sound merely redundant. For example, cum amicitia atque pace, literally with friendship and peace, is often translated instead as "with peaceful friendship".
Hendiadys is often used in Latin poetry. There are many examples in Virgil's Aeneid, e.g., Book 1, line 54: vinclis et carcere, literally translated as "with chains and prison" but the phrase means "with prison chains". markəbǒt par‘õh wəhêlô the chariots of Pharaoh and his army for "the chariots of Pharaoh's army" In, the Hebrew says ger v'toshav, literally translated as "an alien and a resident", but the phrase means a "resident alien". In, the Hebrew says ibbad v'shibar, literally translated as "ruined and broken", but the phrase means "totally destroyed". Some have argued that in cloud and smoke for "cloud of smoke" In, the Greek says "ὅσα προσεύχεσθε καὶ αἰτεῖσθε", literally translated as "whatever you pray and ask", but the phrase means "whatever you ask in prayer". In The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare, it occurs at 4.1.36, when Shylock says, "to have the due and forfeit of my bond".
Hendiadys is the preferred terminology used to describe some types of compounding in Turkic linguistics. Johanson, in his discussion of Turkic compounding, considers compounds of synonymous components to be hendiadys:
The asyndetic type noun + noun is also used in coordinative compounds, so-called twin words or binomes. In this case, two parallel nouns with similar meanings form a synonym compound, hendiadys,...or a hyponym compound to express a higher concept...
