Rhet. ? Obs. [L., a. Gr. ἀντανάκλασις, f. ἀντανακλά-ειν to reflect, bend back; f. ἀντί against, in the opposite direction + ἀνακλά-ειν to break or bend back.]
1. A figure of speech, ‘when the same word is repeated in a different, if not in a contrary signification; as In thy youth learn some craft, that in thy old age thou mayest get thy living without craft.’ J.
1657. J. Smith, Myst. Rhet., 107. Antanaclasis, A figure when the same word is repeated in a divers if not in a contrary signification … also a retreat to the matter at the end of a long parenthesis.
1681. Manton, Serm., Ps. cxix. 123, Wks. 1872, VIII. 266. ‘That Abraham against hope believed in hope’ … is an antanaclasis, an elegant figure, having the form of a contradiction.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 61, ¶ 3. He generally talked in the Paranomasia … but in his humble Opinion he shined most in the Antanaclasis.
2. ‘A returning to the matter at the end of a long parenthesis; as Shall that heart (which doth not only feel them, but hath all motion of his life placed in them) shall that heart, I say, etc.’ J.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 364. That mortall Antanaclasis, and desperate piece of Rhetorick.
1657. [See in 1.]
