Hendiadys.

I learned a new word today.

"Hendiadys."

It's a word I probably should have known, though I can't imagine when or why I would have learned it. It's also a word that is not in my paperback Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

According to the book I just finished reading, A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599,

Hendiadys literally means "one by means of two," a single idea conveyed through a pairing of nouns linked by "and."

Examples are "law and order," "house and home," and "sound and fury." According to the book, almost no English author before or after Shakespeare wrote in hendiadys, and even Shakespeare himself didn't do it much -- except for Hamlet, in which there are sixty-six of them. The next highest count is in Othello, with twenty-eight. (And yes, it's pretty amazing that there are people [generally considered to be scholars] who actually go and count things like this!)

While I recommend the book, Shapiro goes on to note how the use of hendiadys creates a kind of "mental vertigo" which adds to the unbalanced nature of Hamlet.

Fascinating. A cool word. Neat meaning. I'll have to try to incorporate some in my own work.