Learn English – the word for using one part of speech where another would be more grammatical

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There's a Greek word that means using the wrong part of speech somewhere in a sentence, as in:

I don't know the who or the how or the when.

Where "who", "how", and "when" are being used for nouns. What's the word for this?

Best Answer

The word you're looking for is anthimeria, artfully using a different part of speech to act as another in violation of the normal rules of grammar.

This switch might involve treating a verb like a noun, or a noun like a verb, or an adjective like a verb, and so on. Nancy Sinatra's 1960s song These Boots Are Made for Walkin' has You keep lying when you ought to be truthing. . . . You keep saming when you ought to be changing, for example.

Linguists are much preoccupied with e. e. cummings "he sang his didn't, he danced his did."