Adynaton
A form of extreme hyperbole that describes something as impossible, often by piling up impossibilities.
Adynaton (from the Greek adynatos, 'impossible') is a specific flavour of hyperbole in which the speaker expresses the impossibility of a thing by comparing it to something even more manifestly impossible. It is the figure behind phrases like 'when pigs fly', 'when hell freezes over', or the Latin ad kalendas graecas — 'on the Greek calends', i.e. never, because the Greeks did not have a calends.
The device has two rhetorical functions. The first is emphasis: adynaton insists on impossibility more forcefully than a flat 'never' would. The second is playfulness: by requiring the listener to picture pigs in flight or hell in a cold snap, it recruits the imagination as an accomplice, which makes the refusal or denial more memorable than a plain one.
Adynaton is common in oaths, refusals, love poetry (where a lover swears constancy 'until the seas run dry'), and satire (where impossibility is used to mock a boastful claim). It is closely related to hyperbole but distinguished by its structure: an adynaton is not merely exaggerated, it is presented as literally impossible.
Writers should use it sparingly. Because each adynaton is memorable, two in the same paragraph cancel each other out. Reserve it for moments when the speaker's flat 'no' would be under-powered — refusals, vows, or the ceremonial closing of a debate.
“I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet, and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon sing in the street.”
Keep reading the glossary
Deliberate exaggeration for effect — not meant to be taken literally.
An understatement that affirms by denying its opposite — 'not bad' meaning 'good'.
A figure of speech that deliberately says less than the situation warrants, for emphasis, irony, or dry humour.
Deliberate understatement — describing something as less than it is, for emphasis or irony.