Antanaclasis

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In rhetoric, antanaclasis (from Greek antanáklasis, meaning reflection, echo) is the stylistic trope of repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time. Antanaclasis is a common type of pun, and like other kinds of pun, it is often found in slogans.

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  • A famous example of antanaclasis is seen in William Shakespeare's Henry V when the King sends the French ambassadors back to their master with an answer to the insulting gift of tennis-balls. He says, "for many a thousand widows/ Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands; Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;" (HENRY V, I, ii, 284-286)
  • "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." —Benjamin Franklin
  • "If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm." —Vince Lombardi
  • "The long cigarette that's long on flavor." —from an advertisement for Pall Mall cigarettes
  • "Sorry, Charlie. StarKist doesn't want tunas with good taste — StarKist wants tunas that taste good." —from 1980s StarKist tuna advertisements
  • "Put out the light, then put out the light." —Shakespeare's Othello
  • "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." -Groucho Marx [1]
  • "Working hard or hardly working?"
  • "If you don't get it, you don't get it." —The Washington Post slogan
  • "She is nice from far, but far from nice!" - Popular.
  • "'Stop or I'll shoot!' 'Shoot and I will stop!'" - Sweeney Todd
  • "Your argument is sound, nothing but sound." —Benjamin Franklin

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