Paraprosdokian

A paraprosdokian () is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists such as Groucho Marx.
Etymology.
"Paraprosdokian" comes from the Greek "παρά", meaning "against" and "προσδοκία", meaning "expectation". The term "prosdokia" ("expectation") occurs with the preposition "para" in Greek rhetorical writers of the 1st century BCE and the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, with the meaning "contrary to expectation" or "unexpectedly." These four sources are cited under "prosdokia" in Liddell-Scott-Jones, Greek Lexicon. Canadian linguist and etymology author William Gordon Casselman argues that, while the word is now in wide circulation, "paraprosdokian" (or "paraprosdokia") is not a term of classical (or medieval) Greek or Latin rhetoric, but a late 20th-century neologism, citing the fact that the word does not yet appear in the Oxford English Dictionary as evidence of its late coinage. However, the word appeared in print as early as 1891 in a humorous article in "Punch": 'A "paraprosdokian," which delights him to the point of repetition.'
Double meaning.
Some paraprosdokians do not only change the meaning of an early phrase (see garden-path sentence), but they also play on the double meaning of a particular word, creating a form of syllepsis or antanaclasis (a type of pun). For example, in response to the question "how are you two?", a Modern Hebrew speaker can say בסדר גמור; היא בסדר, אני גמור "be-séder gamúr; i be-séder, aní gamúr", literally "in-order complete; she in-order, I complete", i.e. "We are very good. She is good, I am finished". Note the ambiguity of the Hebrew lexical item גמור "gamúr": it means both "complete" and "finished". A parallel punning paraprosdokian in English is a man's response to a friend's question "Why are you and your wife here?": "A workshop; I am working, she is shopping."