Rhetorical Devices attract and hold attention with words. Asyndeton is one in which conjunctions are omitted deliberately from a series. Julius Caesar eliminated “and” when he said, “I came. I saw. I conquered.”
Asyndeton produces a hurried rhythm in a sentence. It creates a concise, dramatic effect. Abraham Lincoln used asyndeton when he said, “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
Perhaps a character could be described as “She had cold feet, cold hands, cold heart.”
Maybe another character could speak Italian, French, German. An athlete could claim, “I play football, baseball, soccer, hockey.” A college student lists his subjects: “I’m taking Statistics, Physics, English, Film.”
In 2007. Steve Jobs described the new smart phone, “Thinner than the Q, thinner than the BlackJack, thinner than all of them.”
Have you used asyndeton in your writing?
