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Regular Contributor
Charming1_1
Posts: 197
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Paraprosdokians

‎07-21-2013 08:58 PM

are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently humorous. Winston Churchill loved them.

I was just reading about this in a local community paper I receive.

Some examples of paraprosdokians are:

I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure.

To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

Winston Churchill is allegedly to have responsded to a woman calling him a drunk, "Madam, that may be so, but tomorrow I'll be sober and you will still be ugly".

You're never too old to learn something stupid.

And the list goes on and on...just thought it was interesting.

ETA: While I've heard of these and other expressions like them I don't think I ever knew what they were called.

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