asyndeton means omission of conjunctions, especially for rhetorical effect. It carries an Arena rating of 1488, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, asyndeton ranks #2,053 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #3,201 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #3,965 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #4,314 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
asyndeton is pronounced /əˈsɪndətən/.
Why “asyndeton” is a great word
A rhetorical figure consisting of the deliberate omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses, typically to produce a hurried or emphatic effect. From Latin asyndeton, from Ancient Greek ἀσύνδετον (asúndeton, "unconnected"), from ἀ- (a-, "un-") + σῠ́νδετος (súndetos, "bound together"), from συνδεῖν (sundeîn, "to bind together"); first used in English in the late 1500s. Unlike polysyndeton (which heaps conjunctions to slow the pulse and solemnize) or ellipsis (which drops words assumed already understood), asyndeton is speed made visible. It is Caesar’s veni, vidi, vici—three hammer blows, no breath between; the grocery list scrawled in crisis: milk, eggs, bread; the stark catalogue of grief: the car, the rain, the tree, the hospital. It speaks in the grammar of urgency, where life offers no soft ands, only the hard periods of things as they are.
Etymology
From Latin asyndeton, from Ancient Greek ἀσύνδετον (asúndeton), from ἀ- (a-, “a-, un-, non-”) and the neuter substantive of σῠ́νδετος (sŭ́ndetos, “bound, joined”), from συνδεῖν (sundeîn, “to join, to bind”), from σῠν- (sŭn-, “together”) + δεῖν (deîn, “to bind, to tie”). Equivalent to a- + syndeton.
noun
- Omission of conjunctions, especially for rhetorical effect.e.g.“Asyndeton, or the Loose language... as thus. I saw it, I said it, I will sweare it.” — 1589, George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie, page 145:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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