You would call yourself an
ophiophilist, a person who has ophiophilia.
Here is my favorite new info of the week with a bunch of examples (because the explanation is a little murky):
Zeugma (from the Greek word "ζεύγμα", meaning "yoke") is a figure of speech describing the joining of two or more parts of a sentence with a common verb or noun. A zeugma employs both ellipsis, the omission of words which are easily understood, and parallelism, the balance of several words or phrases. The result is a series of similar phrases joined or yoked together by a common and implied noun or verb.
Quote:
Prozeugma: a zeugma where a verb in the first part of a sentence governs several later clauses in series.
prozeugma wrote:
She conquered shame with passion, fear with audacity, reason with madness
Chiasmus: a set of sentences where, in the first sentence, a verb at the END of the sentence applies to multiple clauses following it [hypozeugma], and in the second sentence, a verb at the BEGINNING of the sentence applies to multiple clauses preceding it [prozeugma].
chiasmus wrote:
The foundation of freedom and the fountain of equity is preserved by laws. Our lawless acts destroy our wealth and threaten our custody of life.)
Diazeugma: the same noun applies to multiple verbs in the same sentence
diazeugma wrote:
The Roman people destroyed Numantia, razed Carthage, demolished Corinth, and overthrew Fregella.
Despairing in the heat and in the sun, we marched, cursing in the rain and in the cold.
But here's the best part.
Quote:
Syllepsis is the term given to a zeugma when the clauses are not parallel either in meaning or grammar. They are figures of speech in which one word simultaneously modifies two or more other words such that the modification must be understood differently with respect to each modified word.
In other words... One verb, one sentence, two nouns that go with it and the verb is used differently with each noun.
Syllepsis wrote:
He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men.
Are you getting fit or having one?
He broke the record and a leg.
he hastened to put out the cat, the wine, his cigar and the lamps.
If we don't hang together, we shall hang separately.