English

zeugma

Zeugma comes from Ancient Greek ζεῦγμα ‘yoking’, from ζεύγνυμι ‘to yoke’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *yewg-.

Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*yewg-¹‘to join, to yoke, to tie together’reconstructed
Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*yéwgos²‘team of yoked animals’reconstructed
Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEζεῦγος³zeûgos‘a yoke’
Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEζεύγνυμι³zeúgnumi‘to yoke’
Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEζεῦγμα³zeûgma‘yoking’
Englishearliest quotation 2008zeugma³

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

¹ Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *yéwgos
² Wiktionary, Ancient Greek ζεῦγος
³ Wiktionary, English zeugma
Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2008, Amanda Holton, The Sources of Chaucer's Poetics: “Thus I would describe 'He took his leave and…”.

Lineage

Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*yewg-1Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *yéwgos‘to join, to yoke, to tie together’reconstructed
Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*yéwgos2Wiktionary, Ancient Greek ζεῦγος‘team of yoked animals’reconstructed
Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEζεῦγος3Wiktionary, English zeugmazeûgos‘a yoke’
Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEζεύγνυμι3Wiktionary, English zeugmazeúgnumi‘to yoke’
Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEζεῦγμα3Wiktionary, English zeugmazeûgma‘yoking’
Englishearliest quotation 2008zeugma3Wiktionary, English zeugma. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2008, Amanda Holton, The Sources of Chaucer's Poetics: “Thus I would describe 'He took his leave and…”

noun The act of using a word, particularly an adjective or verb, to apply to more than one noun when its sense is appropriate to only one.

Sources: Wiktionary, “zeugma”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Indo-European *yéwgos, Ancient Greek ζεῦγος. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.