paragoge paragoge
 par-a-go'-ge from para "beyond" and goge "carrying"
proparalepsis
preassumpcio, diductio
adding at the end

The addition of a lettter or syllable to the end of a word. A kind of metaplasm.
 
Examples
 

Addition of a final letter:
In Love's Labour's Lost Holofernes parodies this figure. Both "sore" and "sorel" named kinds of deer. By adding an "L" [= 50 in Roman numerals] through paragoge, he makes "50" deer:
If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores o' sorel
—Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost 4.2.59-61

Addition of a final syllable:
When "slack" becomes "slacken" without any change of meaning.

Related Figures
 
  • apocope
    Omitting a letter or syllable from the end of a word.
See Also
 
 
  Sources: Isidore 1.35.3; Mosellanus ("proparalepsis" "paragoge") a3r; Susenbrotus (1540) 21 ("paragoge," "diductio"); Sherry (1550) 27 ("proparalepsis," "preassumpcio"); Wilson (1560) 202 ("adding at the end"); Peacham (1577) E2v


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Gideon O. Burton, Brigham Young University
Please cite "Silva Rhetoricae" (rhetoric.byu.edu)

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