Is there a name for when one phrase ends with a word that starts the next phrase. For instance:
life is a peach and cream
Or
sunscreen in the eye for detail
Or (from Dave Eggers' Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius)
JFKFC
literary-techniquesterminology
Is there a name for when one phrase ends with a word that starts the next phrase. For instance:
life is a peach and cream
Or
sunscreen in the eye for detail
Or (from Dave Eggers' Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius)
JFKFC
Best Answer
You are describing word association football, a variation on the classic rhetorical device anadiplosis, “the repetition of the last word (or phrase) from the previous line, clause, or sentence at the beginning of the next”.1 In this variation, anadiplosis is combined with ellipsis, “omission of a word or short phrase easily understood in context”.2
Word association football is essentially surprising in a humorous and literary sort of way, like a pun. Your examples are typical.
While not necessarily the originators of this rhetorical device, Monty Python get widespread credit for naming it.4 The name stems from one of their monologues.
Here is an example of anadiplosis, followed by the canonical example of word association football. Bolding, italics, and line breaks are added to emphasize the rhetorical structure.