In the 18th century, the Swedish government made coffee and its paraphernalia (including cups and dishes) illegal for its supposed ties to rebellious sentiment.
HYPALLAGE
hypallage
(noun) reversal of the syntactic relation of two words (as in ‘her beauty’s face’)
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
hypallage (countable and uncountable, plural hypallages)
(rhetoric, grammar) A construction in which a modifier with meaning associated with one word appears grammatically applied to another, often used as a literary device.
Synonyms
• transferred epithet
Source: Wiktionary
Hy*pal"la*ge, n. Etym: [L., fr. Gr. (Gram.)
Definition: A figure consisting of a transference of attributes from their proper subjects to other. Thus Virgil says, "dare classibus austros," to give the winds to the fleets, instead of dare classibus austris, to give the fleets to the winds. The hypallage, of which Virgil is fonder than any other writer, is much the gravest fault in language. Landor.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
3 July 2025
SENSE
(noun) the faculty through which the external world is apprehended; “in the dark he had to depend on touch and on his senses of smell and hearing”
Coffee Trivia
