Enallage (e-nal’-la-ge): The substitution of grammatically different but semantically equivalent constructions.
You want to knife me: to knife my self esteem, to slash me with your knife-sharp observations: with the blade made of well-honed lies—springing out of your mouth like the blade of an OTF switchblade, seeming true in my confusion, slashing my self esteem: murdering it.
Killing my self esteem isn’t a capital offense—you won’t be bundled off to prison to be propelled to your death by a lethal injection. But, you’ll derive just as much satisfaction from murdering my self respect as you would have if you had actually made my heart stop beating.
I’ll always think of you as a cold-blooded murderer. As I struggle to perform the miracle of resurrecting my self-esteem, I can’t help but wonder where your taste for betrayal and inflicting emotional suffering come from.
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)
Buy a print edition of The Daily Trope! The print edition is entitled The Book of Tropes and is available on Amazon for $9.99. There is also a Kindle edition available for $5.99.
The Daily Trope 