Is there a name for the deliberate use of incorrect grammar

grammargrammaticalityterminology

Is there a name for the deliberate use of incorrect grammar?

I'm thinking of the phrase "As sure as eggs is eggs", which I heard used by a well-educated speaker recently. Of course, they were aware that grammatically the plural eggs requires the verb form are, but I wondered whether there is a name for the intentional use of so-called 'bad grammar'. Another example is the deliberate use of "ain't" by British English speakers.

Best Answer

As pointed out in @Edwin's comment referring to this earlier Answer, the relevant term here is...

Enallage
...related to solecism (a deviation from conventional word order). Enallage, however, is usually regarded as a deliberate stylistic device, whereas a solecism is commonly treated as an error of usage.

A few famous examples from advertising / TV / movies...

Got milk?
Eat fresh
We was robbed
Mistah Kurtz—he dead
Thunderbirds are go

"All of these stick in our minds because they’re just wrong—wrong enough to be right" (Mark Forsyth, Rhetorical Reasons That Slogans Stick, The New York Times, November 13, 2014)

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