# What's your favorite example of zeugma? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2023, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471 "2023-05-23T14:20:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/41 "2023-06-06T11:49:23Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > Thats more of a chaismus, which is a crossing (hence the name) or inversion. The best example of that is Tom Wait’s “I’d rather have a bottle on front of me than a frontal lobotomy”, which more or less mic dropped the whole concept. Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends! ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/42 "2023-06-06T12:44:39Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends! Don’t sweat the petty stuff, pet the sweaty stuff! ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/43 "2023-06-06T13:31:04Z")
I first read that on a Crumb Zap cover eons ago. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/44 "2023-06-06T14:21:16Z")
Writer: “She stumbled and lay prostitute on the floor.” Editor: “You must learn to distinguish between a fallen woman, and one who has merely slipped.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/45 "2023-06-06T14:36:05Z")
“I don’t know if you’ve been loving somebody. I only know it isn’t mine.” “Alison” Elvis Costello ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/46 "2023-06-13T00:06:04Z")
You can always tell a Yale man, but you can’t tell him much. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/47 "2023-06-13T12:44:22Z")
In the humorous indie game Streets of Rogue, a mobster has the line “Blood makes you related. Loyalty makes you family. Meatballs make you fart.” ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/48 "2023-06-13T12:53:26Z")
And thou, Great Anna, whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/49 "2023-06-14T21:36:58Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > “I don’t know if you’ve been loving somebody. > I only know it isn’t mine.” > > “Alison” Elvis Costello I’ve loved that song for decades, but I never really understood that line until now — thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/50 "2023-06-14T21:53:48Z")
But is that zeugma, or merely double entendre? My understanding of zeugma is that it has to be a word whose double senses are used differently in two different phrases, not merely two different takes of a single word like “somebody” / “some body”. ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/51 "2023-06-14T22:07:53Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > But is that zeugma, or merely double entendre? I consider “some body/ somebody” a pun, not a zeugma. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/52 "2023-06-14T22:17:24Z")
What if she’s pregnant? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/53 "2023-06-14T22:18:35Z")
Ah, true. My post — “she was turned on by the television, and vice-versa” — isn’t technically a zeugma, then, though it implies one, and is easily adapted into one: “She was turned on by the television, and the television was turned on by her.” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/54 "2023-06-14T23:10:38Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > _The Shawshank Redemption_ had, “I’d like to think that the last thing that went through his head, other than that bullet, was to wonder…” That reminds me of the P. G. Wodehouse tag about a character having “something on his mind besides his hair”. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/55 "2023-06-14T23:38:30Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > “She was turned on by the television, and the television was turned on by her.” “His face was drawn, but the curtains were real.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/56 "2023-06-15T00:42:17Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > But is that zeugma, or merely double entendre? My understanding of zeugma is that it has to be a word whose double senses are used differently in two different phrases, not merely two different takes of a single word like “somebody” / “some body”. I feel it qualifies. When you say you’re loving somebody, it implies an emotional relationship with a specific individual. Saying you’re loving some body implies a casual sexual encounter. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/57 "2023-06-15T01:08:44Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > From the musical Hamilton: Also from Hamilton, sung by King George III: “And no, don’t change the subject, 'Cause you’re my favorite subjects.” I’m not entirely sure it counts as zeugma, but I like the word play nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/58 "2023-06-15T03:34:51Z")
From The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: Piano, n. A parlor utensil for subduing the impenitent visitor. It is operated by depressing the keys of the machine and the spirits of the audience. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471.md?page=2)