A Desk-Book of Errors in English/Z
Z
zeugma: "Is the joining of two or more words (as nouns) to a third (as a verb) with which only one or a part of them can be made to agree except by using the nouns in different senses, or by taking the verb in different senses in relation to the different nouns, or by letting the underlying logical relation overrule the grammatical—in Greek a very common figure, but in English quite unusual and ordinarily a violation of the principles of construction and a grave fault in diction. "The control, as well as the support, which a father exercises over his family were, by the dispensation of Providence, withdrawn"; control is properly exercised, but support is not; the verb-form were is made plural to accord, not with the grammatical relation of control and support, but with the logical relation underlying as well as regarded as equivalent to and."—Standard Dictionary. Compare with and.