Figures of Speech Served Fresh

Quote:   “Hell, I couldn’t write a better piece if given a month, five naked research assistants, and a crate of whippets.”  Jack Shafer in Slate.

Figure of Speech:  adynata (a-dyn-AH-ta), the last-people-on-earth figure.

Slate’s media columnist expresses admiration for a colleague’s hurricane story with an adynata (“without power”).  It’s a kind of hyperbole that links impossibilities:  “Even if you and I were the last people on earth, and the survival of humankind depended on us, I still wouldn’t date you.”

The adynata is like a three-ring circus of absurdity, throwing in dogs, unclad assistants, and long deadlines.  Use it as a humorous way to express, “Words cannot express…”

Snappy Answer:  “Maybe you would write better if you weren’t thinking about naked research assistants.”